


HIUA - Just Because You Dream It Doesn't Make It So

by DoveQueen



Series: Heroes - Elena Gray [2]
Category: Heroes - Fandom, Heroes Reborn
Genre: Baggin' n' Taggin', Canon-Typical Violence, F/M, Gen, powers
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-06-16
Updated: 2017-06-16
Packaged: 2018-11-14 17:19:50
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 20
Words: 24,137
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11212650
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/DoveQueen/pseuds/DoveQueen
Summary: Elena and the now-rebuilt Company have successfully made the world forget about Evos, and Elena has finally been offered a place as a Company agent. Only thing is- the job isn't all she'd hoped for. Her dream of "Bagging and Tagging" is to be postponed until she finishes up a bunch of boring missions no one else wants to do. It's on one of these that she meets a boy her age named James. Problem with James is, if her dreams are to be believed, he's supposed to kill her.





	1. Chapter One

**Author's Note:**

> BAM! Second book in the series. Hopefully this one is a bit easier to follow than the previous?

"Everyone has had it before. A dream. _The dream._ People with powers on Earth with us- our neighbors, our friends, our family. Everyone has had this dream before, just like everyone has dreamed of falling or a monster under the bed. But I think there is something more to this dream than the others. That is why we're here today," Jake said as he paced in front of the crowd of about a dozen people.

"You sure it isn't just that, a dream?" Called a girl Jake couldn't point out.

"At first I did," Jake replied, happy for the comment. "But I've been researching. Have any of you noticed that there is no history recorded during the past two years? Sure, there are books being published about then now, but there are no books from that time. It seems suspicious.

"Along with the lack of records, I've discovered a book from about eight years ago. A geneticist named Chandra Suresh wrote it, and it's called Activating Evolution. It holds tons of evidence and research about this!"

"About what? The dream?" Called the girl once more.

"No, about evolved humans." Jake had stopped pacing but now began again. "It writes about humans with special abilities brought on by evolution, much like the powers we see in the dream."

"Where are you going with this?" Asks a guy in the front row.

"I think something is being hidden from us," Jake replied. "This man, Chandra Suresh? He was murdered, and no matter where I look, I can't find another piece of his research. Someone killed him to hide what he knew."

Jake continued ranting about this theories for an hour, but then the clock stuck three and he finished up. "Thanks for coming today, everyone. Our next meeting will be held on Monday, and if you're interested in that book I mentioned, I have a dozen copies by the door."

Everyone began leaving the building, except for one girl. She was leaning up against a wall, so Jake approached her. "Excuse me, but the meeting is over."

The girl looked at Jake from under the brim of her black baseball cap. "So it is. Sorry, I was just thinking."

Jake grinned. "Hey, it's fine." He tilted his head at the girl. "What's your name? I haven't seen you at the meetings before."

"Elena. Elena Gray," she said to him gruffly, then put a hand on his shoulder. He tensed up a bit as she lifted her hat up a bit to look him in the eye. She had stunning, giant green eyes. "Listen," she said, and instantly Jake couldn't help but listen to her. "Those theories of your's? They're nonsense. Forget about them, and tell the others to forget too."

Jake's mind blurred for a second. _You know, of course they're nonsense!_ Jake thought. _Yeah. Yeah! I should just forget about them._ And so he did.

Elena smiled at Jake as his eyes went unfocused. "That's a good boy. Now go home." The boy instantly left the building. Elena followed him a few steps behind and shut the doors to the building behind her. She then pulled a slip of paper out of her pocket and taped it to the handles, where it clearly read 'MEETING CANCELLED'.

She grinned to herself as she pushed her baseball cap back down and continued along the sidewalk to where her next assignment was.


	2. Chapter Two

"Good work, Elena!" Noah Bennet said, a smile on his face. That's your fifth one this week!"

"And it's only Thursday," I replied to him, grinning. "Here's the rest of the paperwork for it." I took the folder that contained the info on my last assignment out of my bag and handed it to him. "I'd like to add that the people who attended Jake's meeting didn't really take him seriously. They shouldn't be a problem."

"What about the other assignment?" Noah said as he flipped open the folder.

"I missed the meeting by about five minutes," I said, slightly embarrassed. "They meet again tomorrow. I'll go check things out then."

"No worries, Elena," Noah said as he shut the folder and put it in one of the desk drawers. "Just one meeting missed, that's still better than everyone else. Plus you're still new to this."

"Being a Company worker for two months doesn't count as 'still new', Noah." Noah Bennet was actually my grandfather, but I still called him Noah. "You and I can't use that excuse anymore. I need to work harder."

"Nonsense," Noah replied. "Work any harder and you'll never stop. Now, head on home. We'll see you tomorrow, Elena."

Taking that as my cue to leave, I stood up and gave Noah a sheepish smile before walking out of the room. As I went, I put my earphones on to listen to some music. It helped to take my mind off of a 'side affect' caused by one of my powers. The side affect was a hunger for knowledge, to know how things worked. But that could lead to murdering someone to take a look at how their brain functioned, as I knew from experience.

I walked down the hall, my fellow co-workers ignoring me. It wasn't them being rude, they just knew that I wasn't typically the chatty type. So I walked in silence, a Rage Against the Machine song blaring in my ears. After a few twists and turns in the halls, I emerged outside and took to the air.

Flight was one of my many powers, being an Evolved Human and all. I could also take powers from people, meaning I was always discovering new ones I didn't know I even had. But flight was one of the first powers I found out I possessed, and I tended to use it a lot, if not for traveling then for goofing off.

In a matter of minutes, I arrived back home at my house in Odessa, Texas. I landed by the front door, making sure to take my shoes off before I went inside. Dad liked to keep the house as neat as possible since we constantly had guests over.

I was just shutting the door behind me when my brother Tommy walked into the room. We were two out of three triplets, our sister Malina being somewhere around Canada. "Hey, Elena," Tommy said as I walked over and took off my headphones. "Have fun baggin' and taggin' today?"

I gave Tommy a quick hug before glaring at him. "You know very well that I'm not allowed to do those kinds of missions yet, Tommy."

"I know," he said with a grin. "I just like to tease you. You look so funny when you're angry."

I rolled my eyes, which caused him to laugh, before walking past him into the kitchen. "Hey Sylar," I called to my dad as I set my bag on the table.

"Welcome home, Elena," Sylar called back. Sylar was an ex-serial killer who was once known as Gabriel Gray, who also just so happened to be my father. "Have a good day?"

"Kinda," I said as I walked over and sat at the counter. "I missed one of the meetings, but the other was a success."

"You missed one?" Sylar laughed. "Miss Perfection didn't get it perfect today. You gonna freak out on us?"

"Depends. What are you making for dinner?" I looked over the counter at the stove at a pot of tomato sauce.

"Lasagna," Sylar replied.

"Alright, you've pleased the beast. No freaking out." I grinned up at Sylar and him back at me. I hadn't been raised by Sylar, though he was my biological father. I'd actually been raised by a foster family, and only met Sylar a little over two years ago. We were more like best buds rather than father and daughter, and it was the same with him and Tommy. But we wouldn't want it any other way. I mean, there wasn't another person in the world I could joke about 'freaking out' and 'going psycho' about, which were our terms for when I was in the mood for murder.

"So," Sylar said after a short pause. "You gonna actually eat tonight?"

"Quite possibly," I replied. "Anyone coming over?"

"Tommy's mom is and so is Peter," he replied. Tommy only stayed with us part-time, since he still felt most comfortable with his adoptive mother. Peter was our great uncle, who was only in his mid thirties.

All our family members were younger than they should have been because Tommy, our sister and I were all older than we meant to be. Long story short, a time traveler brought us back in time as babies. At this current date, we were only supposed to be about two years old. So our great uncle Peter Petrelli was only about fifteen years older than us, we being sixteen.

Sylar suddenly snapped his fingers, as he often did when he remembered something. "Oh, your boyfriend was trying to video chat with you earlier. You should probably call him back."

I tensed up as I heard this. "Did you answer it?"

"Maybe..." He grinned. "Yes, I did."

"What did you do this time..?"

"I morphed into you and answered the call, then turned back into myself after we'd been talking a few minutes. I swear that kid peed his pants he was so scared." One of Sylar's powers was shape shifting.

"You're really mean to Logan, you know," I told him, but was laughing. He really was a scared-y cat. "Alright, I better go apologize. Call me down when Peter gets here!" Then I closed my eyes. When I reopened them, I was standing in my room. Teleportation was fun because it meant I didn't have to use the stairs.

I plopped down in the chair in front of my computer and switched it on. A few seconds later, I was sending Logan a video call request.

It took a few minutes for him to reply to it, but when he did he looked a little nervous. "This actually you, Elena?" He asked.

"Yes, it's me." If I were really cruel, I'd shape shift into Sylar and scream at him. "Sorry about Sylar, he just enjoys scaring you."

"Like father like daughter," he replied, then we both laughed. "So," he began once we'd stopped. "What you up to?"

"Same-old same-old," I replied as I brushed my brown hair out of my face. I realized that I still had my baseball cap on so I took it off and set it besides the computer. "Just got back from another assignment."

"Still making people forget we exist?" He asked, and I nodded. Logan, though I hadn't known it when I met him, was an Evo too. His power was super strength.

I opened my mouth to speak but was cut off as Sylar called my name. "Gotta go. I'll come visit you next week, okay?" Logan nodded so I ended the call and turned off my computer, then I closed my eyes and teleported back downstairs.

Peter was just walking in through the backdoor. When he flew to our house, he typically landed in the backyard. Said it made a better runway. "Hey Elena," he said as I walked over. We hugged real quick before Peter walked over to Sylar. "Could I talk to you for a minute?" He whispered to Sylar, glancing back over at me.

"Um, yeah. Hey Elena, take over making dinner?" Sylar asked me as him and Peter left the room.

I nodded though they were already gone, and stepped over to the stove. I loved cooking, baking even more so, and I often... Improved dinners Sylar made for us anyway. I began adding more garlic to the sauce when I heard Peter and Sylar begin speaking. I'd absorbed the power to hear from long distances from Sylar awhile back, so their conversation in the other room sounded as if they were yelling right in my ear.

"I had a dream, Sylar," Peter was whispering, his tone urgent. Peter, along with Sylar and I, could dream the future.

"Well? What was it about?" Sylar asked, a note of worry in his voice.

"It was a little unclear... All I know is that something bad is going to happen, and probably soon." He stopped, then added quickly. "Keep an eye on Elena, okay?"

I tensed up when I heard this. "What do you mean? Is something going to happen to her?" Sylar asked.

I heard Peter sigh. "I don't know, like I said, it was unclear. But Elena was in it and there was a lot of blood..." Peter trailed off.

I shuddered then tuned them out, focusing on the sauce. So he dreamed of me and blood- big deal. I can heal, and I've actually died before. What could possibly happen to me?

But what I had heard still nagged me all throughout the night, and every so often I'd catch Sylar and Peter watching me with fearful eyes.


	3. Chapter Three

That night, I had a dream.

I was wandering the streets of what looked to me like New York City, but it was destroyed. Cars were flipped, buildings crumbling, there were cracks in the road that were at least twenty feet deep. People screamed in the distance and a baby wailed.

I walked through the ruins of the city and came across a dead body. I didn't recognize the person, so I stepped over them and continued onward. But soon it was like the streets were paved with dead bodies. Young, old. Men, women. No one was spared.

Pretty soon, I felt like I was going to vomit and-or break down and cry. But then I heard the voices. Shouting from up ahead. I ran across the bodies, trying to ignore the puddles of blood and gore I stepped in, growing ever closer to the voice. Rounding a corner, I came to a stop.

The street was clear of bodies and the buildings looked fine. There were no cars and no people, aside from two figures standing in the road.

One, a boy, was dressed in a button-up white shirt with a jacket and black slacks and fancy, shined shoes. His hair was blond and looked as if it had just been combed. Despite his fancy look though, he couldn't be much older than I was.

"This isn't what I wanted and you know it!" The second figure yelled at him. I couldn't make out her face due to the baseball cap she had on.

"But you agreed to help me, and help me you have," the boy said with a British accent, a sly grin on his face. "Now come, we must finish our plans."

"There is no freaking way I'm helping you after what you just did!" The girl yelled, stomping her foot. "I should kill you now for everything you've done!"

"Oh, but we can't have that, now can we?" The boy said. Quick as lightning, he pulled out a gun and shot the girl in the face.

"No!" I screamed, but the boy paid no attention. He simply put the gun back in his pocket and walked away.

I rushed over to the girl's body and crouched besides her, but my face paled when I removed her baseball cap. The girl was me.

I shook her shoulders, screaming for her to heal but making no sound. Blood pooled around my feet and her body, soaking into our clothes. But I didn't heal.

As I shook her, me, there was a rumbling. I looked up just as the skyscrapers that lined the street began to crumble. I screamed a silent scream as blocks of concrete rained down on me and my dead body.

 

I woke up with a screech, my heart pounding in my chest. A second later, my door burst open and Sylar came inside. He looked frantic as he looked around the room and then at me. "What's wrong, Elena?" He asked, rushing over and sitting on my bed.

Slowly, my heart rate went back to normal and I rubbed my eyes sleepily. "Just a nightmare," I murmured.

"A nightmare?" Sylar asked, tensing up. "What about?"

"I was in New York City," I started off, trying to remember the details. "And everyone was dead. Then I saw myself get shot and... I didn't come back."

Shock and fear flashed across Sylar's eyes before he put on a fake smile. "Well, a dream is just a dream. Doesn't mean anything, right? I mean, why would you be in New York?"

I smiled slightly. "Yeah, it must have been just a dream," I agreed with him. But his and Peter's earlier conversation still nagged at me from the back of my mind.

"Alright, goodnight kid." He rustled my hair then left the room.

I curled up into a ball in the center of my bed as I heard Sylar call someone on the home phone. "Hello? Peter?" I heard him say right before I fell back asleep.


	4. Chapter Four

The next morning, I pushed all thoughts of the dream to the back of my mind. Not every dream I had was about the future, and there was a large chance that the dream was just that, a dream. So when I got up, I got dressed in my usual getup, putting on my watch and my hat before shoving my music player in my pocket and going downstairs.

Strangely, Sylar was in the kitchen. "Don't you have an assignment this morning?" I asked as I walked in.

"Peter is taking it over. I don't leave until about lunch," Sylar replied. Sylar and Peter both worked for the Company like I did. Though, unlike me, they were actual agents. I was just cleaning up the results of our latest cover-up story. 

"Alright, well, I have to go," I said as I gave him a quick hug then grabbed my bag. "Got some conspiracy theory meetings to crash."

"Be home for dinner, alright?" Sylar called as I walked down the hall.

"I will!" I called over my shoulder.

 

I had the list of locations in my bag, so as I flew I read about the meeting I was going to. It was being held in an old and closed down apartment building near Dallas. I rolled my eyes. Why couldn't they choose better places for these things?

Pretty soon, I arrived at the building. No one else was there yet so I loitered besides the door listening to music. I'd gotten some new songs a couple days ago and was trying them out. I didn't think I'd like it, but I got a Rihanna song too called 'Towards the Sun'. It was actually pretty good.

It was about another hour before the members began showing up. I took off my headphones and put them back in my pocket, in case someone decided to talk to me. But, as usual, no one did.

The host showed up not long later and unlocked the building for us. We all filed in, me keeping my head down. Noah had drilled me time and time again about keeping people from seeing my face. We didn't want anyone recognizing me later.

I expected this meeting to be like the dozens of other ones I had shut down, but I was wrong. Inside was a circle of about twenty chairs, in which the members all sat in. I hurriedly chose a seat, two empty ones on ether side of me in the circle. Once everyone sat, the host stood up.

"Thank you all for coming today! It's nice to see our crowd growing ever bigger." The host, a young boy with a mess of red hair, smiled. "Who would like to start first?" A girl with blonde hair raised her hand. "Ah, yes, Jessie. Go ahead."

 _So they take turns speaking,_ I thought to myself. This was odd, and complicated my assignment. I'd typically wait for everyone to leave then make the host of the meeting forget so that the meetings would be disbanded. But now I had to make _everyone_ forget, as it seemed there was no specific leader of the group.

"Hello everyone," Jessie said, standing up. She had a high and rather annoying voice. "Regarding the subject of super-humans, I'd like to report that I may have evidence." Everyone gasped and squealed. "On my way to the supermarket yesterday, I spotted a man who seemed to light his cigarette with his _hand._ He didn't have a lighter." More gasps as Jessie sat back down.

"I too have something to report," said another girl, this one with a shaved head. "I've been attending multiple meetings around the state this past month, but it's like the hosts of them have been forgetting everything the meeting is about. Some will show up and ask why everyone was there or ask who we were. Others will just cancel the meeting and we won't hear from them again." The girl shuddered. "Someone is trying to get rid of us, which means that there _is_ something being hidden."

I was tense. That girl was actually doing her homework. _Perhaps I_ should _make the whole group forget from now on,_ I thought. It'd prevent things like this from happening, that was for sure.

"What about you?" Someone said, and I looked up. Everyone was looking at me.

"Me?" I asked, trying to keep my cool.

"Yes, you. Haven't seen you around before. What makes you believe that these dreams of super-humans aren't just dreams?" Said a boy with blond hair. He looked sorta familiar.

I snorted, then decided to have some fun. I stood up and took off my hat, throwing it back on my seat. "Believe? Why, because of this." I held up my hands and focused, causing them to light up. I held back though, because if I put too much energy then I'd blow up like a nuclear bomb.

Everyone gasped, though no one screamed. "How are you doing that?" One boy said, awe in his voice.

"To be honest, I'm not sure." I shrugged. "I just will it to happen and it does."

"And what is it exactly that you're doing?" Asked the bald girl.

"I'm creating radioactive energy. It can be used to power machines, light a room, EMP or even blow something up," I replied, then let my hands die down. "Just wanted to show you guys before I made you forget."

"Forget?" Someone asked, everyone standing up.

"Yes, forget." I sighed. "That dream you guys have? It isn't a dream. It was real. But as you guys know, it was filled with death. Normal people would hunt down people like me, torture them, murder them or just lock us away. So me and my family, who also has these powers, made the world forget about us, think that everything was just a dream. To protect everyone." I looked around at the crowd. "We have to keep our existence a secret for everyone's own good."

"So what are you going to do?" Asked Jessie.

"Nothing painful, I assure you," I said, looking at her. "To be honest, I don't like keeping what I can do hidden. So you guys have..." I looked down at my watch. "Four minutes, to ask questions and such, then I'll leave. Come tomorrow this will all seem like a strange dream."

The group went wild, asking everything from if I was an alien to if I could make meat appear out of thin air. I answered every question I was asked and demonstrated some of my powers. But then the time was up.

"Listen to me, everyone," I called, and everyone snapped to attention. "You all need to forget what you just saw and heard, as well as everything having to do with real-life superpowers. You will all now leave the building in single file and go back to your homes."

Everyone did as I said and left the building, except for one boy. The boy with blond hair. He looked around at his friends, mouth open. I tilted my head at him. "Go. Leave," I told him.

"What? No!" The boy said. "What did you just do?"

"Power of persuasion," I replied as I picked up my hat. I put it on and turned back to him. "You should have forgotten everything that just happened. Why are you still here?"

"I'm... Not sure," he muttered. I noticed he had a British accent.

I sighed. "Alright. Looks like you're coming with me." 

"Coming with you where?" He asked, taking a step back.

"You're gonna come to our headquarters. My boss is gonna want to ask you a couple questions." I motioned for him to follow. "You won't be hurt, I promise. We just need to know that you'll keep quiet." The boy hesitated for a second then followed me out the door.

I stopped just outside and shut the door, then took the piece of paper out of my bag and put it on the door to notify people that the meeting was cancelled. "You're the one who's been making people forget, right?" The boy asked.

I nodded. "It's my job. Now." I turned back to him. "Grab on."

"Grab on..?" The boy looked confused.

I rolled my eyes then walked over to him, moving his arms so that they were wrapped around me. The boy blushed so I grinned at him. "Okay, now hold on. Don't want you plummeting to your death." Then I took to the air.

The boy screamed at first, then the scream turned into a laugh. I realized then why the boy looked familiar. _The dream!_ I remembered, then shuddered. No, he couldn't be the boy to kill me. From what I could tell, he was a sweet guy. The two just looked similar, that was all.

It took a matter of seconds, a minute at most, to get back to Primatech headquarters. Once there, I pried the guy's arms off of me then led him inside.

"What is this place?" He asked as I pulled him down hallways.

"No questions, please," I said. "Oh, and mind not mentioning me showing you and your buddies my powers earlier..? I don't want to get fired."

"Yeah, sure," he replied. "Where are you taking me anyhow?"

"I just said no questions," I sighed. "But I'm taking you to my boss, as I've already said."

We walked down a few more hallways then stopped outside of Nathan Petrelli's office. I knocked twice then heard him. "Come in," he called.

I opened the door and pushed the guy inside, coming in behind him and shutting the door. I was reminded of the first time I came in this office, along with my boyfriend Logan. We'd came to interrogate Nathan into telling us where Hiro Nakamura was, and I ended up throwing a book at him. _Good times,_ I thought to myself with a grin.

"Hello, Elena," Nathan said, standing up. "Who's this?"

"I'm James," the boy said, looking around the office. I pushed him forward. "Go read a book or something," I muttered to him, then took a seat in front of Nathan.

"Why did you bring him here?" Nathan asked, eyeing James.

"Well, I ran into a slight... Complication at my last assignment," I replied, avoiding eye contact. "I made everyone forget I was there and everything to do with Evos as ordered, but he didn't. He knows I have powers now and I wasn't sure what to do with him."

"He didn't forget?" Nathan sounded confused. "How is that possible?"

"I'm not entirely sure," I muttered. "I even tried it a second time and nothing happened."

Nathan motioned at the guy. "Come take a seat, James." He turned and faced the pager on his desk. "Send Doctor Suresh in, please," he said to it after pressing a button.

James walked over from where he stood at the bookshelf and took a seat. Nathan put on his best fake smile then we waited for Mohinder to show up.

It was about ten minutes before Mohinder Suresh came in. "You asked to see me?" He said to Nathan as he stepped inside the room.

"Yes, I have someone you need to meet," Nathan said to Mohinder, beckoning him over. "This is James."

Mohinder shook James' hand. "Nice to meet you James," he said, then turned back to Nathan. "But why exactly am I here?"

Nathan was about to speak, but I stood up from the chair before he could. "If you guys are handling this, I'd like to be excused. I have three more assignments to do today."

"Yes, that's fine." Nathan waved his hand. "We'll inform you if anything interesting happens."

I dipped my head to him and Mohinder then left the room. It was true, I did had three more assignments to do that day, but really I just wanted to get out of that room. James unnerved me a bit, since he could somehow resist my power and he looked so much like the boy from my dream.

I shrugged as I stepped out of the building. It was probably just a coincidence.


	5. Chapter Five

Exhausted, I walked back into my house. I'd just barely made it to all of the meetings, and at each one I made everyone forget instead of just a single person. Really wore me out.

I plopped down at the kitchen table and dumped out all of the paperwork I'd been given. I was supposed to fill out a folder's worth of info for each assignment I completed. I thought it was a waste of time, but Noah and Nathan didn't think so. Or perhaps they did, and they just wanted to give me something to do.

As I got to work on the first page of questions regarding the first assignment, the front door opened. "You back, Elena?" I heard Sylar call.

I nodded, though he couldn't see me. "Yeah, in the kitchen."

Sylar walked past me, rustling my hair as he went. He knew I hated it when people did that to me, so he made a point to do it. "Have an interesting day?"

I chuckled. "Sorta." He looked over at me for further info. "At my first assignment, there was this British guy who _resisted_ my power. I had to bring him back to the Company headquarters. I figured they would have René wipe his mind or something after they figured out why he could do that."

Sylar had his back to me, but I saw him tense up. "What did this kid look like?" He asked hesitantly.

"Oh, you know. Typical average British guy. Sorta fancy getup and perfectly combed blond hair." I snorted. "He looked pretty darn stupid compared to everyone else."

Sylar sighed and turned around, pulling up a chair and looking at me. "There's something we need to talk about, Elena," he said. He opened his mouth to speak again but then the phone started ringing. He sighed once more then stood up. "Just a second."

He then left the room and I went back to my paperwork, wondering what it was he wanted to talk to me about. I had just started on the second page of info when my phone started ringing. I clicked answer and held it up to my ear. "Yeah?"

"Remember how I told you we'd let you know if anything interesting happened?" Nathan said. "Well something has. Get over here right away, we're in the Testing Room." Then he hung up.

I put my phone back in my pocket and stood up. "Gotta go back to Primatech, Sylar!" I called to my dad. "I'll be back later!" I then shut my eyes and concentrated.

"Wait, Elena!" I heard Sylar call, but I was already gone.

I reopened my eyes and looked around. I was back in Nathan's office at Primatech. _Wrong room,_ I thought to myself, muttering. I then closed my eyes again and reappeared in the Testing Room, right behind Nathan and Mohinder.

I tapped Nathan on the shoulder and he turned around with a slight jump. "Gosh Elena, can't you knock?"

"You were the one who told me to come here. You should have expected me to barge right in," I said, crossing my arms. "So what happened?"

"We ran a series of tests on James after you left," Mohinder said, not even turning around. "We wanted to know why, or how, he resisted your power. But we discovered something we didn't expect."

I looked over Mohinder's shoulder. He was looking through a glass surveillance window at what I thought at first glance was an empty room. Then a giant rock flew across the space and hit the far wall.

Mohinder looked back at me and grinned. "The boy has an ability."

 

Mohinder explained what all had happened in the five hours I had been gone. First, they'd hooked James up to a machine to test brain waves. Mohinder said that they were abnormal though, so they ran further tests. In the end, they'd discovered that James had two abilities. Earth bending, meaning he could control anything that had stone or another type of rock in it, and ability stopping, meaning he could block other people's abilities.

But after further tests, Mohinder discovered that James could only use his ability blocking to a certain extent. Meaning, he can only block abilities that are used on him that are related to the brain. This meant that James could keep people from reading his mind, persuading him and controlling him, but not keep people from healing themselves, as I had asked him.

Once Mohinder had finished explaining, Nathan gave me a big smile. "Congratulations, Elena. You bagged and tagged your first Evo."

I'd been watching James throw rocks around in the room, but I now turned to face Nathan. "What are you guys going to do to him now?" 

"Well," Nathan started. "We're low on employees right now since most of the world lost memory of all of this, so we figured we would offer him a job. If he declined, then we'd just send him back home and monitor him until we knew he wouldn't be a threat."

"Let me guess, you'll ask him to be a field agent?" I grumbled, crossing my arms again.

"Actually," Nathan said, grinning. "We hoped you'd perhaps mentor him. Bring him along on your last few memory wipe assignments, then on your field missions once you start."

My eyes widened. "Mentor? But, isn't the rule one of us, one of them?" All the teams had one 'normal' person and one Evo. It helped to even the odds out.

"We're low on workers right now. Two of us, none of them will have to do."

I looked over at James as he lifted another rock into the air. I grinned. "In that case, I'd love to be a mentor."

 

After that, I hung out at Primatech for awhile and spoke to James a bit. He seemed thrilled about working with us, why I wasn't sure. I tried to read his mind at one point to find out but I was greeted with a static. It really stunk not knowing what he was thinking.

Eventually, Nathan told me I had to go back home. So I snapped a quick picture of James and I on my phone then teleported back.

I appeared in the kitchen and dropped my bag on the table as I always did. Nathan gave all the unfinished paperwork to Noah and told him to have someone else do it, so my bag was empty for once.

Sylar rushed into the room a second later and wrapped me in a hug. "Nice to see you too?" I laughed as he let go. Peter came into the room behind him. "Hey Peter. I didn't know you were coming over tonight."

"Well, things came up and we figured I should come over," Peter said, shrugging a bit.

The two of them seemed a little nervous but I ignored it. "You guys will never believe my day!" I squealed. "You know that guy I told you about earlier, Sylar? Well turns out he's an Evo too, and Nathan gave him a job at the Company! But it gets even better- I'm going to _mentor_ him! Isn't that great?"

"Nathan gave him a job?" Peter asked, clearly shocked.

"Well, yeah," I said, looking at him with my head tilted. "He's a sweet guy and already has control over his power. Plus Nathan said we were 'low on employees' so it seemed like the right choice."

"I can't allow you to work with him, Elena," Sylar said, his voice stern.

I raised an eyebrow. "Allow me to?"

"You can't trust him, Elena," Peter said, crossing his arms. "I'll talk to Nathan and have him assign you someone else to mentor. But that kid... You need to stay away from him."

"What is going on with you guys? Of course I can trust him!" I protested, throwing up my arms. "Is this about that stupid dream?" The two looked at each other. "That dream isn't going to come true. Why? Because it's in New York City, which I will never go to. Why? Because we're not going to kill all those people, nor will James shoot me."

"You have no way of knowing that," Sylar protested.

"Neither do you," I shot back, then sighed. "Just give him a chance, guys. I had that dream too, and it freaked me out a bit, but there is no way James is a killer. He's a nice guy, and thanks to him I just got a promotion." I grabbed my empty bag and went upstairs, leaving the two standing silently in the kitchen.

I started up my computer to chat with Logan but he was offline, so instead I took off my hat and flopped onto my bed.

It was sweet that Sylar and Peter were worried about me, but they should know that I could take care of myself. I assumed that they had the same dream as I, but that dream will never come true for many, many reasons. So why waste time worrying?

 _Just watch,_ I thought to myself. _James is going to be a great agent and those two are going to be so embarrassed about doubting him._


	6. Chapter Six

The next few days followed the same routine. I'd get up, get dressed, go straight to Primatech to get James, then head out on my assignments for the day. James would then watch while I took care of making everyone forget. After that, I'd drop James back off at Primatech and go home, where I'd bare through a lecture or two from Sylar about not being able to trust him.

This went on for about a week before Sylar gave up trying to convince me that James was a bad guy. Part of me knew that there was a chance that he could be right, but I didn't listen to it. Besides, I wasn't too emotionally attached to the guy. If he turned out to be evil, I wouldn't hesitate putting him down or turning him in. That may sound awful, but it was true.

It was Monday now, and I realized that I hadn't spoken to Logan for a few days, so I decided to pop over for a visit. He lived up in Indiana still, where I lived before I discovered my powers, but that was no problem since I could fly as well as teleport. So, when I got back home from Primatech that night, I went straight over to Sylar instead of avoiding him in fear of getting another lecture.

Sylar was in the living room when I got back, so I walked in front of him to break his concentration on the TV. "I'm going over to Logan's in a few minutes." I told him after he glared at me. "I'll be back ether late tonight or tomorrow morning. Just thought I should let you know."

"Rather long visit," Sylar said suspiciously.

"Different timezones." I shrugged. He was always like this when I was going to Logan's. "It'll be two hours later here than it is there."

"Alright, well, have fun." He motioned for me to move away from in front of the TV. He had a faint grin on his face, and I could tell he was planning something. But I just shrugged it off and stepped aside.

I walked into the kitchen and put my bag on the table. The table was the bag's home, I decided, due to Sylar not liking it to be there. Then I grabbed my phone, which I'd forgotten that morning, and left.

I appeared outside of Logan's door and knocked. His house was a rundown shack in the middle of the trashy part of the neighborhood. He'd been living there when he worked for the underground railroad, but never got around to moving after it was shut down.

The door opened a crack, then fully a second later. I was greeted by Logan's huge, goofy smile. "Hey Elena," he said as he stepped forward to hug me.

I'd known Logan for nearly three years, in which he hadn't changed at all. His hair was still super curly and untidy, still had that big, goofy smile. And after all this time, his eyes still stunned me. Blue with a slash of yellow down the center. I'd never seen any others like them.

I returned Logan's hug and sighed. "When are you going to move to Texas so we can see each other more often?" I asked as we embraced. "The Company could really use someone like you, you know."

Logan pulled away, shaking his head slightly. "I just don't like it down there. Indiana is my home, you know?" He then stepped aside and ushered me through the door.

 

The visit was like all my other ones. We sat down, watched a few movies then talked for an hour. My visits always made me feel normal again, like I was just a normal teenage girl visiting her hot boyfriend. I knew inside that I couldn't be normal, but pretending to be, even for a short time, was good enough for me.

I left at about 1:00am, making plans with Logan to video chat sometime during the week. Seconds after stepping out the door, I was walking into my house back in Texas, having appeared outside.

"Sylar?" I called as I stepped inside. "You home?" I'd call for Tommy as well, but he went back to his mom's house the night before.

There wasn't an answer, so I went up to my room. He'd been planning something earlier, so I figured he was out doing what ever the heck it was. Then, since I had nothing else to do, I got ready for bed. I had to go to Primatech at 8:30am, so I wanted to at least get a little sleep.

I was just crawling into bed when I heard the front door open. I assumed it was Sylar, but I walked out of my room and over to the stairs anyway. I shivered from cold as I stood there and looked over the railing, my thin pajamas not being nearly as thick as the hoodie and jeans I typically wore.

A figure moved around in the shadows by the front door. "That you Sylar?" I called, causing the figure to stop. It slowly turned and began coming up the stairs.

Now freaking out, I held out my hand. "Stop!" I commanded, but they didn't stop. I then tried using my telekinesis to hold them still, but it seemed to do nothing. Desperate, I tried to create a ball of radioactive energy as I did so often so that I could ward them off- but nothing happened. It was as if my powers had been blocked.

I began stepping backwards, away from the stairs as the figure came closer and closer. My back hit the wall behind me just as they came up the final step. I was trapped.

I looked around, desperate for something I could use to defend myself, and saw a lamp. I took it off the table it was on and brandished it like a baseball bat. "Don't come any closer!" I spat at them.

"I don't want to hurt you, Elena," said the figure as they stepped into a pool of light.

I gasped, lowing the lamp. "René?" I stuttered, then my temper flared. "Why the heck didn't you say something? You basically gave me a heart attack!" I paused. "What are you doing here?"

He was quiet for a second. "I was sent here to make you forget," he said evenly.

"Forget what?" I said, shocked. René had the ability to remove thoughts and memories from someone's mind, as well as the ability to block powers.

"Forget about the boy. James I think was his name."

I actually felt myself bristle with anger. "Who sent you here?" I growled.

"Everyone," he said quietly. "Nathan, Peter, Noah and your father." He looked at me and sighed. "Some things have happened and it's best that you just forget."

I opened my mouth to protest but René was already stepping forward. "I'm sorry," he murmured, then placed his hand on my forehead. I uttered a quiet sob as my memories began to slip away.


	7. Chapter Seven

I woke up in my bed the next morning at about 10:30am. I had a headache and everything seemed a little... Unreal. In the back of my head, I had this nagging feeling. I spent 10 minutes trying to figure out what it was that I forgot.

 _Oh!_ I remembered. _My assignment! I had to be at Primatech this morning! I'm late!_ I hurriedly got dressed in my usual manner, making sure to put my music player in my pocket before dashing down the stairs.

Sylar was at the kitchen table eating breakfast, my bag right besides him. I rushed over and grabbed it, but Sylar grabbed my arm. "Whoa whoa, where's the fire, kid?"

"I'm late for my next assignment," I gasped, out of breath from running. "I need to get to Primatech!"

"Calm down," Sylar said in an unusually soothing tone. "You don't need to go in today, remember? Noah said yesterday that he has someone else doing cleanups. You and I get the day off, then tomorrow you start field missions."

My heart skipped a beat. "Really?" I asked, grinning. How could I forget something like that?

"Yeah." Sylar grinned, then patted the seat next to him. I sat down as he began to speak. "So when did you get home last night? I didn't hear you come in."

"At-" I cut myself off, squinting. When _did_ I get home? The last thing I remembered was leaving Logan's. How did I even get to bed last night? "I'm not sure..." I muttered, a little freaked out.

Something flashed in Sylar's eyes, sadness, perhaps regret? before he grinned and rustled my hair. "It's fine. You probably just partied hard is all."

"Yeah, that's probably it," I muttered.

After that, I grabbed my bag and went up to my room. I had the day off and no idea what to do. I could video call Logan, but what would we talk about? What did we even talk about yesterday? No, I wouldn't call him.

I could cook, but only Sylar was home, and he didn't really eat a lot, and I didn't eat at all so it'd just be a waste. Read? Nah. I'd read all the books I had and I wasn't in the mood to go to the library. I sighed and flopped down onto my bed. I could sleep all day if it came down to it. It was, after all, my favorite pass time.

I realized I was still holding my bag so I dropped it on the bed besides me. From the corner of my eye, I glimpsed a piece of paper inside the bag. Curious, I sat up and pulled the paper out, scanning over the page.

The paper was the info sheet for my assignment, which hadn't been filled out. _Sylar said someone else was doing these now..._ I thought as I looked at the paper. _But what if they think this one is already completed, or missed it completely? I should probably go check it out to make sure it isn't missed._

After hesitating for a second, I shoved the paper in my pocket and went back downstairs. "I'm going out for a little," I called to Sylar over my shoulder.

"Where to?" He called, walking over from the direction of the living room.

"Library," I lied with a smile, though I wasn't sure why. "I have some books I need to pick up."

"Alright, well have fun," he said, then went back into the living room.

I stepped outside and slipped on my shoes before taking to the air. I'd read on the paper that the meeting was in town. I'd just pop on over and see if René or Peter went, since they were the only two besides Sylar and I who worked for the Company and could make people forget. If they were there, I'd head to the library as I had told Sylar. If not, then I'd finish my assignment. I'd completed every assignment I'd been given, and it only seemed right to finish my final one as well.

The building that the meeting was being held at was easy to find. It was a boarded up store behind a closed down gas station. It was clear that there were people inside, due to the boards on the door having been taken down and the voices I heard.

I landed by the gas pumps then walked the rest of the way over. There was a gap between two boards on the window, so I peeked inside.

There were only five people at this meeting. Two teenage girls, both of whom had teal hair and pierced everythings, a middle aged woman with bright red hair, a Hispanic teenage guy and a blond kid in a button-up white shirt. I didn't see any people I knew, which meant I'd been right and this assignment had been overlooked.

Slowly, I walked over to the door and opened it. The blond kid jumped as it squeaked on it's hinges. "Sorry I'm late," I muttered, keeping my eyes on the floor. 

I heard a gasp and was suddenly being hugged by the blond boy. "Elena! I can't believe it's you!" He said with a heavy British accent.

I stared at him, shocked, until he let go of me. "Do I know you?" I asked him.

The boy tilted his head at me. "Elena, it's me, James." He shakily laughed. "We just saw each other yesterday, remember?"

"Dude, I've never seen you before."

James turned and looked at the group of people. "Will you excuse us for a second?" He said, grinned, then pushed me outside. Once we were out of earshot of the group, he turned to me, eyes frantic. "Elena, really. Is this a joke or something? Please tell me you remember me!"

Uncomfortable with him being so close, I shoved James away. "No I'm not joking. Who the hell are you?"

The boy sat down in the dirt, face in hands. "I can't believe this. I really can't believe this."

Something suddenly occurred to me. "Hey, wait. How did you know my name?" I asked him.

James threw his hands in the air. "I know your name because we knew each other, Elena. I worked at the Company. You were going to mentor me." I stared at him. What the heck was he talking about? But he kept going. "Then yesterday afternoon, right after you left, this big Haitian guy, I think his name was René? Well he shows up, knocks me out using his hand and next thing I know I'm back at my house and I can't contact Primatech."

"How do you know about the Company? About René?" I ask, picking him up by his shirt collar.

"I'm telling you, Elena! It's because I was going to work there!" He said frantically. "You found me on one of your assignments, but you couldn't make me forget because of my ability to block it. Then you took me back to Primatech and left me with Nathan and that Indian guy, Mohinder was it? They said that I could be an agent, and you could mentor me. Then this guy shows up who everyone called Sylar and his buddy who Nathan called Pete, and next thing I know I'm being attacked by René.

"I remember René's ability being something along the lines of erasing memories? I think he tried to wipe my mind before the Company ditched me, but it didn't work. I came to the first meeting I could find in the area in hopes you'd show up and give me some answers."

I let go of James' shirt and he dropped to the ground. I sat down in front of him and sighed, running my hand through my long hair. "I don't remember any of that," I muttered.

"René probably got to you, too," James said quietly. "Is it standard protocol to erase all memories of former employees?"

I shook my head. "No. At least, I don't think so." I put my face in my hands. This definitely explained things. My loss of memory of the night before, being given a 'day off' from work, Sylar acting so strangely. And how else would this guy know all our names? I sighed and looked back up. "Could you give me some sort of proof that you worked for the Company and knew me?"

The guy's shoulders dropped. "I don't have any actual paper and picture proof, but I have memories." He looked up at me. "You're able to read minds, right?"

I laughed. I'd completely forgot I had that power. "Yeah, um, just give me a second," I said to him, then focused on his mind.

James said he was able to block powers, and now I understood how. It was like all his memories were locked up in separate rooms of his mind, all with shut doors. I was curious as to what was behind the shut doors, but as I ventured deeper, I found doors that were opened, and behind those doors I found memories of me, of the Company.

I left his mind mere seconds later, heart feeling like it was torn in two. I'd seen memories of me and him hanging out, him tagging along on my assignments. Then I saw his memories from yesterday. My family- my _dad_ coming at him, René trying to erase his mind, him waking up at home scared. I felt a tear run down my cheek. "James," I whispered.

A smile broke out on his face and he embraced me again. "It's great to have you back, Elena," he said into my hair. I returned the hug, happy to have James back, though I hadn't known I'd lost him.


	8. Chapter Eight

James sat in my swiveling chair by my desk, spinning in circles. We had ditched the meeting soon after I got my memories back, and had flown straight to my house. I didn't really care about keeping my perfect record anymore.

Once we'd gotten to my house, we came in through the window, since Sylar was downstairs. _I still can't believe he was part of this,_ I thought to myself, shaking slightly from rage.

"Why do you think they tried to get rid of me?" James asked as he spun. We'd been going over reasons in our heads since we got back.

I flopped backwards onto my bed. "I have no idea. You were, are, a nice guy, and would have made a fantastic agent." I looked over at him. "Did you do something that caused them to have a change of mind?"

He shook his head. "I hadn't done anything but what they'd told me to do, and that was answer questions and learn from you." He sighed. "I did hear them mention something about a dream. That mean anything to you?"

"No," I said after a second. "If there'd been a dream foretelling something about you, I would have had it too, but I haven't." At least, I didn't remember any dream.

"Let me guess," James said, slowing to a stop in the chair. "Another power of your's? Dreaming the future?"

"How'd ya guess?" I said with a grin.

There was suddenly a knock on my bedroom door. "Hey Elena?" I heard Sylar say. "That you? I didn't hear you come in."

James stood up from the chair and I shoved him into my closet before opening the door. "Yeah," I replied to him, smiling. "I came in through the window. Thought it would be cool."

Sylar laughed. "You really are a strange kid," he said, then rustled my hair. I wanted so badly to slap his hand away and scream at him, but I just smiled. "Anyway, you hungry? Actually, strike that question. Lunch is ready if you want to eat." Then he turned and left.

I shut my door and James peeked out of my closet. "He gone?"

"No, he's not gone, and now he knows you're here because you're talking," I said sarcastically as I sat down in James' seat and swiveled to face my computer.

"What are you doing?" He asked as he stepped out of the closet.

I turned on my computer and waited for the monitor to wake up. "Neither of us know why the Company tried to get rid of you, so I figured I'd ask someone else for their opinion." The screen lit up and I quickly went to my Skype, sending Logan a video chat request.

The chat request was accepted a few seconds later, and Logan's face appeared on my screen. James came up besides me and squinted at the blurry picture. "Hey, Elena," Logan said once the picture had cleared up. He noticed James and squinted back at him. "Who's he?"

"Logan, this is James. James, this is my boyfriend Logan." I introduced them, then held up my hand to keep them both from talking. "We need your help, Logan. The Company tried to do something and we can't figure out why."

"What'd they try to do?" He asked, still eyeing James.

"They offered James a job at the Company, but yesterday everyone tried to get rid of him... Even Sylar and Peter. Erased all memories and tracks of him. I didn't even know he existed until I ran into him again this morning."

"If memories about him were erased, how come you guys know about this?" Logan asked.

"James is able to block abilities. They tried to wipe his memories of the Company, but he resisted and held onto them. Then I read his mind and recovered all our shared memories." I could actually see Logan stiffen up, so I rolled my eyes. "Now's not the time to be jealous, Logan."

"I'm not jealous," he muttered. "Anyway, what do you need my help with?"

"We've been going over reasons why the Company tried to get rid of James, and we've come to the conclusion that it has something to do with a dream someone had. But I can dream the future too, and I haven't had a dream with James in it. So I wanted to hear what you thought happened and what we should do."

"Well," Logan began. "Let's say this dream someone had was pretty awful. The person who would have had it could have only been Peter, Sylar or Angela, all of which are you family. Angela wouldn't have done anything though, so it could have only been Peter or Sylar.

"Now, if you or Tommy got hurt in that dream, I'll bet my life that they took every precaution to keep it from coming true, if it was a dream about the future or not. Maybe James made an appearance in the dream and they figured he was tied in, so they thought it best to get rid of him?" 

"That's what we've been thinking," James said to Logan. "But what are we supposed to do? I can't just live in a closet the rest of my life."

Logan had a sly smile on his face. "Take action," he said to me, not looking at James. "You're Elena Gray for crying out loud. You crossed the country, broke into Primatech and traveled through time at fourteen years old. I'm sure you'll think of something... Suitable." He grinned at me. "Now, I have to go. I got a job yesterday and I don't want to be late for work." Then he left the call.

"Did you really do all that?" James asked as I turned off my computer.

"Yeah. I also threw a book at Nathan Petrelli, broke into another company, got stabbed by my grandpa and saved the world from burning to a crisp," I said as I turned in the chair to face him.

"You're pretty bad ass you know," James laughed.

"I'm aware of that," I said, grinning.

"So." He paused. "What are we doing now?"

"I want to do something drastic," I said as I stood up, rubbing my hands together in an attempt to look evil.

"Like?" James asked, raising an eyebrow.

I shrugged. "Blow something up? Perhaps kidnap someone from the Company to give them a little scare?"

"I have a better idea," James said, a glint in his eye that I hadn't seen before. "You've told me tons of times that you don't agree with the Company, that the world should know about us."

"Where are you going with this?"

"I'm saying, let's tell the world." James grinned. "They made the world forget, then they tried to make us forget. We reversed one, so let's reverse the other."

"Seems a little extreme, James," I said. "I mean, they're trying to protect people. Ruining all they've, I've, been working for is a little much for a few memories."

"Think about it, Elena." James walked over and put his hands on my shoulders. "They're just going to keep making people like me forget we have powers until we find out on our own. People could get hurt or worse when their powers are discovered. _We'd_ be protecting people by telling the world. We'd be heroes. Plus, the second they find out you remember me, they're going to make you forget again, and it's not like I can hide in here forever."

"You do have a point," I murmured, taking his hands off of me and sitting down on my bed.

James sat down besides me and gave me a pleading look. "Come on, Elena. What do you say? We'd get the ultimate payback while helping everyone in the dark at the same time."

"But last time people knew the world was corrupted!" I protested. "It's why we made everyone forget in the first place!"

"It could be different this time," James said. "I remember bits and pieces of those two years. Wasn't there an explosion that turned everyone against us?" I nodded. "Well, this time there won't be an explosion, you and I could make sure of it. The 'normal' people wouldn't have a reason to hate us unless they were insanely racist."

I sighed. "We'll probably get caught. I mean, once the Company finds out what we're doing they'll send everyone after us."

"You said 'what we're doing', does that mean you're in?"

I flopped backwards onto my pillows. "Sure. Why not? Let's make the world remember."


	9. Chapter Nine

After deciding to 'fix mankind's minds', I pulled out my phone and went to contacts. I scrolled past Emma's number and didn't so much as blink. It had been years, I was over her death. Or, at least, I wanted to believe I was.

Near the bottom of the list, I found Tommy's number and went to texts. "Hey Bro," I wrote to him. "Going to vanish for awhile for various reasons. Need to get some payback on Dad 'n stuff. Just call me if you wanna tag along." I made sure to use grammar when texting. I freaking hated chat speak.

"Who were you talking to?" James asked. I noticed that he looked suspicious.

"My brother, Tommy." I shrugged. "I asked if he wanted to come along. He's been complaining about there not being anything to do nowadays."

"You sure we can trust him to not rat us out?" James asked. 

I bristled at his question. "I trust Tommy with my life," I growled, sitting up. "I sure as heck trust him more than I trust you."

"Understandable," he replied, shrugging.

I stood up and clapped my hands together. "Alright," I said. "To make the world remember, we'll need to get on TV. Any ideas of where we can go to get noticed?"

"The president is giving a speech tomorrow at the White House," James said instantly. "We could talk to him before the speech, you use your brain mojo on him and bam, he lets us on camera."

"We'll still need to kill a day then," I replied.

"I'm sure there's plenty to do in Washington. We'll find a way to waste some time."

"Sounds good," I said, then walked over to my closet.

"What are you doing?" James asked as I took out two bags.

"Well," I said, throwing the bags onto my bed. "We're about to expose the Company, it's not like we can do that then come waltz back here. We'll need to lay low for a bit."

"You seem to know a lot about this... You done something like this before?" James asked, and blushed as I took my hoodie off.

I straightened the t-shirt underneath then grabbed my trench coat from my closet. _Hello old friend._ "In sorts," I replied to James as I put it on. "I've done a good amount of hiding and rule breaking."

"What's with the change of clothes?" James asked as I buttoned the front of my coat.

"Disguise," I replied simply. "I've worn nothing but black hoodies for two years. This'll make me a little harder to recognize."

"If you don't want to be recognized, I suggest taking off the hat and watch. They're like, you're signature items. Wear them and it'll be a dead giveaway."

I glanced up at James, a sly grin on my face. "It wouldn't be fun if we didn't give them hints, now would it?"

James rolled his eyes then grabbed one of the bags. "Got any clothes I can wear?"

"My brother's room is straight across the hall," I said as I began to back up my bag. "Help yourself to his closet." James nodded then left the room.

I threw a wad of cash into the bag besides my phone. As I zipped up the now filled bag, I heard two feet hit the floor behind me, and turned around to see Tommy standing there.

Tommy had the ability to take powers from people. He'd taken our mother's ability to heal at birth, which led to her death not long later. Along with that, he'd been born with the power to teleport, and had taken our sister's ability to control the elements.

My brother stepped forward, looking really confused. "What do you mean, 'vanish for a little'? Where are you going?" He demanded.

I picked up my bag and slung the straps over my right shoulder. "Gonna pay President Trump a little visit with a buddy of mine. Care to join us?"

Tommy was about to speak but then James stepped back into the room. "All packed 'n ready to go," he laughed, then stopped. "Who's this?" He motioned towards Tommy.

I was about to introduce them but Tommy cut me off. "Wait, you're going with _him?_ Are you nuts Elena?" He exclaimed, looking from James to me.

"Wait, you know who he is?" I asked, shocked. James shuffled his feet.

"Of course I do! Dad said he was dangerous and to stay away from him!" He said, then grabbed my arm. "Come on, we need to go."

I shook his hand off of me, anger rising in my chest. "Dad is wrong, Tommy!" I said, louder than I intended. "He doesn't know a thing about James. Tommy, he had the Haitian wipe my memory, and tried to do the same to him for no reason. He's being irrational and he needs to see that."

"Just come with me, Elena. We'll find Dad and see what's going on." Tommy held out his hand. "Please. I don't want to see you get hurt."

I hesitated, then grabbed his hand. He smiled at me and I felt my heart drop. "I'm sorry, Tommy," I said, then focused and teleported him away.

I looked over at James. "Come on. He'll be back any second," I said as he walked over. I then grabbed his shoulder and teleported the both of us away.


	10. Chapter Ten

"Why did you agree to do this?" James asked as we walked around near the Lincoln Memorial in Washington. We had our suitcases, which were more like backpacks, on our backs. With them and our strange getups, me being in a large trench coat and him in a fancy button up shirt and jacket, we stood out in the crowd. Luckily though, no one seemed to care about us.

"You already know why. I wanted to do something drastic, and this was as drastic as it got." I shrugged.

"No, really. By doing this you're pushing away all your family and your life, then you'd have to go into hiding until things calmed down. Why would you risk so much for a bit of revenge?"

"They need to learn that I'm not some prissy little girl who they can mess with without facing the consequences. You can't take my memories and not expect to..." I paused. "Feel my wrath, I guess." I looked over at James and grinned. "Plus things are kinda dull now. I _miss_ running for my life and getting shot at."

"You're one strange girl," he muttered.

"I'm aware of that. But life wouldn't be fun without a little strangeness, now would it?"

 

After that little chitchat and some sightseeing, James and I sat down on a bench, once again near the Lincoln Memorial. My phone had been ringing for hours, so I took it out of my bag and looked at the missed calls.

There were eight from Tommy, twelve from Noah, one from Nathan, seven from Peter and too many to count from Sylar. There was also one from Logan, but he left a voicemail, in which he wished me good luck with 'whatever it was I was doing'. I smiled when I heard that. You know its true love when your boyfriend is alright with you being a psycho.

The sun was setting now and I was starting to think about our plans for that night, where we'd sleep and such. But when I brought up the topic, James shook his head. "No," he told me. "We need to get to the president tonight. If we get close enough then you can use your brain mojo and get him to let us stay at the White House tonight then get on TV tomorrow."

"Alright," I said, then picked up my bag and grabbed his shoulder.

James picked up his bag as well. "Where you gonna take us?" He asked me.

"Straight to his office," I said, then closed my eyes.

We appeared in the center of the president's office. The room was exactly like it was in every picture I'd seen in history books, right down to the last detail. It was like stepping into a story book, being there.

Lucky for us, the president wasn't in at the moment, so James and I dropped our bags on the floor. James then walked over to the bookcase on one of the walls and took out a book. I on the other hand wasn't interested in that junk, so I walked over to the desk and plopped down in the President's chair.

I leaned back in it and sighed. "I could get used to this," I muttered, then began spinning.

"Having fun?" James asked as he flipped through a book.

"You betcha." I grinned. "What you reading about?"

"Looking for documents and records about government cover ups to keep the public from knowing about the existence of aliens," he mumbled.

"You're looking for conspiracy evidence?" I laughed.

"Yes," he said, suddenly defensive. "Everyone knows that the government hides the truth from the everyday person."

"Whatever you say," I replied, holding back another laugh.

"Why's that so funny to you?"

"It's not. I just didn't take you to be the geeky guy are apparently are." In reply to that, James just made and annoyed noise and went back to reading. I grinned then kept spinning.

About an hour or so later, the doors to the office began opening. James looked at the door, clearly freaking out. I, on the other hand, just stopped the chair from spinning and rested my elbows on the fancy desk in front of me, propping my head up on my hands.

President Donald Trump entered the room, and I saw his bodyguards waiting outside. The door had already shut behind him when he noticed me. "Who the hell are you?" He asked me, still having not seen James.

"That's unimportant," I said to him. "But you need to listen to me."

"I'm all ears," he replied, sitting _in front_ of the desk, like I was the president and not him.

"Me and my buddy." I pointed to James. "Are going to address the nation tomorrow before your speech. You're going to _let us,_ as well as allow us to stay the night here in the office. You will not ask us any questions, nor will you tell anyone we're here."

"Got it," he replied like a good little obedient president.

"That's a good Trump," I replied with a grin. "Now proceed as you were."

Trump instantly stood up from the chair and walked over to the other side of the desk as if I weren't there. He muttered to himself as he rummaged around in a desk drawer, then grabbed a folder and left the office again.

James let out a sigh of relief as the doors closed. "I love that power," he muttered.

"Comes in handy a lot," I replied, smiling.

"What do we do now?" James asked after a short pause.

"Now," I replied, kicking back and putting my feet up on the desk. "We relax until showtime."


	11. Chapter Eleven

That night, I slept in the fancy desk chair while James took the couch. The chair didn't look like it'd be comfy, but it was like sleeping on a black leather cloud.

The next morning it was all hustle and bustle in the office, the president rushing in and out with various staff members, preparing for the big speech that afternoon. Thanks to a power I got awhile back from a guy named Matt Parkman, I was able to make it appear like James and I weren't there. So while the staff freaked out, James and I sat on the couch taking funny pictures on my phone.

I found one of him and me at the Company in my pictures as I scrolled through them. We were both grinning from ear to ear, arms around each other's shoulders. How could everyone think this guy was dangerous?

At one point, James started complaining that he was starving. I didn't really have to eat, it's just something I didn't have to do, but I was tired of him whining so I went out and grabbed him a bagel from a desk outside the office. After that, we just sat quietly until it was time.

Finally, my watch said it was 2:30pm. Time for the speech.

The office was now deserted, everyone having left along with the president to go take care of last minute issues. So James and I stood up and stretched our stiff legs, him grabbing our bags. We'd planned that he'd wait off stage with our stuff while I took care of the speech, since I was the one who needed some revenge and had the ability needed to make people listen. Then, once I'd finished, I'd grab James and we'd get the heck out of there.

"You ready to go?" I said, turning to James.

"Yeah. You?" He replied.

"I'm as ready as I'll-" I stopped.

"What's wrong?" James asked, tilting his head at me.

There was an intense pounding in my ears in a steady rhythm, much like a ticking clock but louder. Now frantic, I hurriedly began searching my pockets. "Elena, what's wrong?" James asked again, his voice a little shaky.

"I need my music player," I gasped out. "I'm about to go psycho."

"Go psycho? Elena, what are you talking about?"

"It's my power, James!" I said, louder than intended. "If I don't resist it then I'll go a little crazy. I usually listen to music to zone myself out, but I can't find my MP3 player!" I suddenly realized where it was, and the color drained from my face. "I left it in my hoodie. I need to go back."

"No!" James shouted. "It's too late. We need to get to the stage now!" He grabbed me by the shoulders. "You don't need the music player to resist this, right?" I shook my head. "Good. Just resist it on your own until the speech is over, then we can go grab it."

I took a deep breath then nodded. "Alright. Just... Stay back. I don't want to hurt you," I muttered, then opened the office door.

The hallway was busy and no one seemed to notice us stepping out of the office. I grabbed the arm of a woman walking by and told her to lead us to where the speech was being held, and so she did.

About five minutes later we were standing behind a curtain as everyone got ready. My head was pounding so I sat on the floor, hands over my ears trying to block it out.

My current state seemed to unnerve James. "Come on, come on, come on..." He muttered, pacing in front of me. Suddenly, the pounding in my ears stopped. My hands fell to my sides and I stood up, a small grin on my face. James stopped pacing and looked over at me. "Elena?" He asked hesitantly "You alright?"

"Yes, I'm fine," I said quietly, my grin growing into a full on smile. "Never better, actually." It was true, I felt a sort of... Bliss now.

As I looked at James, I could hear how he worked inside. His brain seemed to tick like a clock, but not quite. It was slightly... Off. _An easy fix,_ I thought, and my hand twitched at my side. I wanted so badly to take a look in that head of his.

James didn't seem to notice my change though and began pacing. He stopped a second later. "He's here!" He said, pointing as the president came into the room.

The president had bodyguards around him, but I walked over anyway. "Hello, Trump," I said, smile still on my face. I faintly heard the ticking coming from him, but it was correct. Normal. The only thing 'special' about him was his amount of confidence.

A bodyguard raised his hand to stop me from coming any closer, putting his other hand on his gun. "No, it's fine," Trump said, touching the man on the shoulder. "I know her."

I quickly told them what we were about to do, and everyone nodded. "Alright," said the president. "Do you want me to come out before or after you?"

"Go ahead and go out. You and Carson can speak after I do, but you guys should be out during my speech." Trump nodded and went out onto the stage, bodyguards waiting just behind the curtain. I turned and nodded to James, smiling like a maniac, before following him out.

The stage was located in a medium sized room. In front of me where dozens of chairs filled with reporters and various important people. In front of them were cameras that were going to broadcast the speech to the rest of the country.

The stage itself was small. There was a podium in the center with a few chairs behind it, in which sat Trump and vice president Carson. The vice president looked confused and kept trying to talk to Trump, but the president didn't acknowledge him. He instead stared straight ahead just as I had told him to. 

Everyone began to mutter as I stepped up to the podium. "Don't worry," I told the crowd. "I'm allowed to be here." They instantly quieted down. I saw someone stand up from a back row and leave the room, but ignored them.

I moved my hand slightly, which caused the cameras to turn on. "Hello, world." I smiled at the cameras. "I know, you guys were probably expecting President Trump, but we had a little chat and he said I could talk real quick." I pointed over my shoulder at the president, who snapped out of his stare and began speaking to Carson.

"Anyway," I continued. "I'm here to spread some light on a situation. All you conspiracy theorists out there better record this!" I paused for dramatic effect. "Almost everyone in the world, except those of us too thick to give a shit, have noticed a lack of records over the past two years. Why is that?

"It's simple." I put my elbows up on the podium. "We're hiding something from you guys. No, not the government. They're as clueless as the rest of you. No, we're a Company that specializes in hiding the truth from the world. My great grandmother was actually a founder of said Company.

"You guys are probably thinking 'if she's from this Company or whatever, why is she telling us this?'. Well I'll tell you why. You see, we recently underwent our biggest cover-up ever, and I didn't agree with it. I thought the world had a right to know what us humans as a species are capable of. So I guess you could say I've gone rogue. I've made it my sole mission to undo what the Company has done.

"Now," I said, standing up straight again. "You're probably wondering what it is that's been hidden. Well, I'm about to show you." I raised my hand and looked directly at a camera. "Those of you watching at home, try not to faint." I took a deep breath and began to focus my energy, planning on creating a ball of light.

That was when the bullets ripped through my chest.


	12. Chapter Twelve

It was utter chaos. People in the crowd began screaming and running out the doors. The president's bodyguards came out and ushered him away, dragged Carson along with them while he screamed that he was a doctor and could help me. 

Then I was there, slumped up against the podium, front and back torn up from the shower of bullets.

Typically, I'd heal instantly from a shot. But I wanted to have some fun, so I let myself bleed while I awaited the shooter to show up. The cameras were still rolling and pointed at me, so I played up the act and uttered a fake sob and moan of pain.

A second later I was swarmed with men in black. Some carried machine guns, some pistols, and all wore dark sunglasses. Originally, I thought it had been Company agents shooting me. But these guys were no Company agents. They grabbed my hands and cuffed them together, bound my ankles then put a bag over my head.

Once my face was covered I began to smile. All that had been broadcast across the entire country. 

I was then lifted up and carried out of the room. While I listened to the steady ticking of their normal minds, I wondered who these guys could be. CIA? FBI? I tried to search their minds to find out, but all I could make out was that the majority was disgusted that they had to shoot a 'little kid'.

I heard a door open and then close behind us, and next thing I knew I was flying through the air. I hit my head on the floor of a van and then slid until I hit the far wall. The backdoor of the van slammed shut and we began moving.

I sat up and breathed out, letting my flesh knit back together and the bullets fall out. I then snapped the chain holding the cuffs together and took the bag off of my head. But the second I had the bag off of me, there was a woman in my face shoving a tube up my nose.

"Nice try," she muttered as she pressed a button on a box connected to the tube. "But you're not getting away that easily."

Suddenly, my limbs felt like led. I tried to speak but my words slurred together. The woman smiled at me sadly as I slumped up against the wall. A moment later everything was black.

 

I opened my eyes and the world slowly came into focus. I was strapped to an upright metal table, my arms covered with restraints and out on ether side of me like I was on a cross. There was a metal bar around my head and two more on my torso. I assumed that my legs had restraints on them as well, but since I couldn't move my head I couldn't see how many.

There were wires attached to my head and on other parts of my body. I also noted that I no longer wore my original clothes, but now had on a plain white t-shirt and gray slacks. I had no shoes on and my watch and hat were gone.

The tube was also still there. It ran down from my nose and was connected to a box on the floor, which I assumed was used to drug me.

I looked around at the room I was in as I listened to the steady ticking coming from besides the box. I was conscious enough to be surprised the ticking was still there. It typically went away after I was killed or knocked out. Maybe it was a part of me for good now.

The room I was in was plain. All concrete, dim lighting. In a corner there was a ton of equipment, which the wires that were connected to me ran to. But in front of me was a TV. I nearly laughed at the sight of it. What were they going to do, brainwash me?

"I didn't realize you guys actually did this kinda stuff," I said with a laugh. "Thought this was just a little somethin' people added to movies and music videos to make things more interesting." I sighed. "This is actually exactly like a music video for one of my favorite songs. You ever heard of Soundgarden?"

"As a matter of fact, I haven't," said the woman as she stepped into view. "Must not be a very popular band. Or are they new?"

"They're actually super popular, and older. They do a lot of heavy metal and rock." I grinned at the woman. Her hair was black and short like a boy's and her eyes were cold. She had a fake smile plastered onto her face. "Has anyone ever told you that you're not very attractive?"

The woman ignored my comment and looked down at me with her head tilted. "My men fired dozens of bullets into you, yet you haven't got a scratch on you. Why is that?"

 _"Nothing seems to kill me, no matter how hard I try. Nothing is closing my eyes. Nothing can beat me down for your pain or delight. And nothing seems to break me. No matter how hard I fall nothing can break me at all. Not one for giving up though not invincible I know,"_ I sang in a wispy voice.

"You a poet or something?" The woman asked.

"Tis' the song by Soundgarden." I grinned at her. "But I think it fits the current situation."

"You say it fits?" She clarified. "Does that mean you're unable to die?"

"Tisk tisk," I said, managing to wag my finger at her. "You weren't paying attention to the lyrics. 'Not one for giving up though not invincible I know'."

"So you are able to die?"

"Someone give this woman a reward, she used her ears," I said then started laughing.

The woman pinched the bridge of her nose. "Can you please tell me your name?"

"What one do you want to hear?" I giggled at her. "I've got quite a few of them."

"Just tell me all of them," she said, clearly annoyed.

"First name," I said, lifting a finger. "Elena Hill. Twas' my name when I lived with my foster family. Second name." I raised another finger. "Elena Gray. Legally changed it when I moved in with my biological father. Third and fourth names." I raised two more fingers. "Psycho and Freak. Given to me by various people for obvious reasons. And my fifth and final name." I raised my thumb. "Is Sylar 2.0. A buddy of mine said I took on the name in an alternate timeline when I became a serial killer."

"Serial killer, huh?" The woman said, a disgusted grin on her face. "You're a little young to be a murderer."

"Oh, I'm not a serial killer right now, though I could have been," I said, smiling up at her. "So you better watch out."

"Are you threatening me?" She asked, raising an eyebrow.

"I'm only threatening you if you take it as a threat." I shot her a sly grin. "So," I said, instantly going from the smile to a bored expression. "What you going to do, and how long is it going to take? I have somewhere to be."

"Just going to run a few tests," she replied, putting on a genuine evil smile. She turned around and faced the far wall that I couldn't see. "Get in here, intern!" She called.

A door I couldn't see opened and shut. I heard approaching footsteps, wheels and the ever present ticking of the new arrival's brain. I did a quick sweep of his mind and grinned as the boy stopped besides the woman. "Treat him with some respect, Witch. His name is Zach, not Intern."

The woman, who I had dubbed Witch, looked from me to Zach. "Do you two know each other?"

Zach rapidly shook his head, and I rolled my eyes. "Of course we don't know each other. And if he did, he wouldn't remember me anyway." I looked Zach in the eyes, then my face lit up with a smile. "You a Heroes fan? That's awesome. Only other fan I met was my late buddy Emma."

"How did you know that?" Zach asked, really confused. Witch looked intrigued.

"You're an open book." I grinned. "So who's your favorite character?"

"Peter," he mumbled. "He just seems like a a true hero."

"Well well," I said to him with a laugh. "I know Peter. He's actually my great uncle. Really cool dude. I personally prefer my dad, Sylar, though. Just a lot more powerful, and everyone loves a good villain."

"What do you mean, your dad and great uncle?" Zach asked. "It's just a TV show."

"That's what they want you to think," I replied. "I thought it was too until I was kidnapped by them. One of their famous bag 'n tag missions. Such a fun day."

"What is she talking about?" Zach asked, looking at Witch.

"Not entirely sure," she replied, studying me. "We think she may be a terrorist. Or perhaps just a very disturbed girl."

"Terrorist? HA!" I laughed. "Alright, I'm done here. I need to go meet up with my buddy." I looked over at my arm and pushed against the metal.

"Good luck trying to break through that," Witch laughed.

"Thanks. The more luck the better," I giggled, then yanked my arm through. The metal restraints and few leather bindings tore in half.

The two of them watched me in utter shock as I ripped my other arm through the metal, then proceeded to tear apart the thicker restraints on my torso. But Witch snapped out of it, and switched the machine on the floor back on.

I was just about to rip the tube out of my nose when I lost feeling in my arms. I slumped back up against the metal table, unable to move.

Witch stared down at me with her snotty grin. "There's no escaping this place, kid. So rest up, because tomorrow you're going to have a big day." Then I blacked out.


	13. Chapter Thirteen

I screeched as another bolt of electricity went through me, but then the scream turned into a demented laugh. "You're wasting your time," I spit at the scientist by the battery Zach had wheeled in the day before. Zach and Witch, who's real name I discovered was Veronica, stood off to the side. Zach looked a little pale, where as she was expressionless.

"Again," Veronica ordered. The scientist nodded then switched it back on, causing me to screech again.

They'd turned off the machine that'd drugged me a few hours ago. Veronica had explained that they were going to run tests to see how much damage my body could withstand before it shut down. For good. In reply to that, I'd laughed in her face and told her there was nothing that could kill me. She'd taken it as a challenge.

I wasn't entirely sure why they were doing this, but I didn't bother trying to ask. Instead I just braced myself for another round of volts, since I couldn't teleport out of there. I had already tried, but I was still too out of it from the drugs to focus on a specific place.

"That's enough," Veronica said, raising her hand as I screamed. I sagged back against the table as the volts stopped, gasping for breath. "Lunch time."

I hissed at her like a cat. "I don't want you food."

"You'll die without it," she replied.

"I'd rather starve than take your handouts." I didn't mention that I didn't have to eat.

"Then at least have some water," she said, then waved Zach forward. He brought over a bottle of water.

I actually flinched as I saw it. "No. I don't want water."

"Too bad," Veronica said.

I shut my mouth tightly but the scientist pried it open and Zach poured some water into my mouth. As I always did when I touched water, I felt like I was drowning. I spit it out of my mouth and gasped for breath, but it was like my lungs had stopped working.

"What's happening?" Veronica shouted at the scientist.

"I don't know!" The man yelled back. "Her heart rate is going crazy!"

I gasped for air but couldn't get any in. Panic set in and I desperately threw myself against the restraints. Everyone was gathered around me now, shouting, but it was like I had gone deaf. I tried one more time to take a breath, but failed. I blacked out once again.

 

I woke up later. The three were still there and looked confused and, in Zach's case, worried. My lungs and head throbbed and I actually felt tears streaming down my cheeks.

"What was all that about?" Veronica demanded. "Your heart stopped for a full half hour."

"Just keep water away from me," I said, now sobbing. I no longer heard the ticking and I was questioning my sanity. Why had I thought this would be fun? Why did I try to expose the Company?

"Does that happen every time you drink water?" Veronica asked.

I shook my head. "Whenever I get wet. I don't ever drink plain water. I prefer beer." Even though I was terrified, I could still crack a joke.

"Why?" The scientist asked. I shrugged as best as I could as fresh tears ran down my cheeks. I wanted desperately to wipe them away but couldn't move my arms.

"You seem... Different," Veronica muttered.

I nodded my head. "This is me. The hunger had kicked in... Tends to make me a little psycho. I'll be good for awhile, but could you maybe get me a music player? It helps sometimes."

"You will not be given anything that can be used as a weapon," Veronica replied. How could a music player be used as a weapon? "And what do you mean, 'the hunger'?"

"You wouldn't understand..." I muttered. "It's just a side affect of something. A hunger for knowledge is all it is." Fresh tears started up. "If I act like that again, just put me down. A knife right at the base of the skull. One good jab and that's it. I'll be dead until you take the knife out."

"Why would you tell us how to kill you?" Veronica asked in a surprisingly gentle tone.

"Because I don't want to hurt anyone," I said quietly.

Veronica turned to the scientist and together they left the room, leaving Zach with me. He looked nervous, but came over. "You said you had a hunger?" I nodded. "You mean like Sylar from Heroes?"

I nodded again. "I told you. He's my dad."

"But he can't be, he's not even a real person."

"That's what you think," I murmured.

The scientist and Veronica came back in not long later, a fake smile plastered on Veronica's face. "Dr. William and I have decided to run further tests," Veronica said.

"What kind of tests?" I asked hesitantly.

"Oh, various tests. No more shocking though. We've decided that water would be far more effective."

I stiffened up. "I won't let you use water on me."

"Let?" Veronica asked, sounding surprised. "Why Elena, you don't have a choice."

They then wheeled me out of the room, because apparently the metal cross-table I was strapped to was mobile. Out in the hall, things looked strangely familiar. Then we passed an archway where two new metal doors were being put up, and I realized where I was. "Is this Renautas?" I asked, shocked and a little amused.

There wasn't a reply, though Zach looked at me from the corner of his eye. "Oh, it's nice to be back here. Last time I was here, I believe I set all you guys' Evos loose and broke out my dad and uncle. Ah, what a fun day. Hey, is Erica around?" I laughed.

"Erica is busy trying to fix everything that you ruined," Veronica hissed. "I've been left in charge of you until she returns tomorrow."

"Hey, wait a second," I said after a moment. "Shouldn't you all have forgotten about us Evos? And wait, if you knew I was an Evo, why the frick did you question me and run tests?"

"We have means of remembering," Veronica replied with a sly grin. "As for the tests and questions, that was merely for fun. We knew you weren't a terrorist. Though we're still trying to figure out if you're sane."

I turned my head as best I could to look at Zach. "Let me guess, you've been putting on an act this entire time as well?" No response. "You guys are really cruel."

They wheeled me down the hall and into a large room. At the back was a large tank of water that could easily house a whale. On the right side of the room on the wall were restraints, on the other side there were hoses. There was a drain at the center of the room but it was clogged.

"What are you going to do? Spray me with a hose until my lungs give out?" I questioned.

"Actually," Veronica replied. "We've got something else in mind."

I was wheeled up a flight of stairs until we were on a platform right above the tank of water. "Have fun," the scientist said, then he and Zach pushed me off and I plummeted into the water.


	14. Chapter Fourteen

It was like my flesh was being burnt off with ice. It burned but was freezing. But it wasn't ice nor fire. It was water.

I sank to the bottom of the tank, being weighed down by the table I was still attached to. I screamed until my lungs tightened and I couldn't make any noise even if I wanted to.

I held my breath as I looked up at the three on the platform, anger burning inside of me, a silent inferno in my core. It was about then that a glass top slid across the surface of the water, making it psychically impossible for me to get out.

I was crying it hurt so much being under the water and holding my breath. After a full minute, I just couldn't do it anymore. I opened my mouth and took a big breath of water, trying to cough it back up a second later but unable to do it.

But after a moment of the forced coughing, I realized something. I was fine. My lungs no longer felt tight and the burning sensation was gone. I took another slow breath of water then exhaled, just like I was breathing in air. Nothing. I wasn't drowning.

 _I can breath underwater,_ I realized happily. Then my anger resurfaced, along with the ticking.

Without much resistance, I ripped my arms out of the restraints then the other parts off myself. I was then free and floating near the bottom of the tank, my hair a mess around me. I glared up at the three figures watching me above.

"You threw me in here to drown!" I screeched at them, though I doubted they could hear me. "And for that, you're gonna pay..." I looked down at my hands and began to concentrate on making energy.

As my hands lit up with the ball of radiation, the water began to get hot around me. It was soon boiling and the whole tank was shaking. The three rushed down the stairs and began making their way over to the door. I pressed my hands against the tank though and the glass melted, unleashing a wave of water.

The boiling hot water hit them and they began to scream. I didn't feel a bit of remorse as I swam over to them, just under the surface of the water.

I resurfaced when I was right besides Veronica, feeling a slight tension in my lungs as I reverted to breathing air. I grabbed her by the arms and pulled her across the room, hands still burning. She screeched as my hands made burnt impressions on her shoulders, but I ignored her.

I lifted her up into the restraints on the wall and latched her arms in. "Thank you," I whispered to her. "You made me realize something." I looked up at her terrified face. "I'd been trying to be something I wasn't, a hero. But I'm not meant to be a hero, oh no. I have an urge to murder, to rip people's heads open. It's just not fitting." Then I turned and left her there.

I waded over to the door, where Zach and the scientist were trying to get out, and lifted my hand. The door flew off it's hinges and out into the hallway, unleashing the wave of hot water. People screeched as they were swept away in the hall, but I simply dove back under and swam.

The water grew shallow as I reached my old cell, so I stood back up and walked over. Outside was a small box with a lock on it. I ripped it open, and took out the objects inside. My phone, my watch, my hat and my clothes. I threw the shirt and pants away and instead slipped my trench coat on over my white shirt. I stuck my baseball cap on and put my watch back on my wrist, then continued down the hall.

Victoria hadn't asked me how the rest of the Soundgarden song had gone, so as I walked down the hall, throwing people this way and that, I sung it.

_"I've givin' everything I need. I'd give you everything I own. I'd give in if it could at least be ours alone. I've given everything I could. To blow it to hell and gone. Burrow down and blow up the outside world. Blow up the outside world."_

A smile crept across my face as I stepped out into the open, having made my way up to the first floor. I'd used the first part of the song for reference before, so why not use the rest?

I straightened my hat, smiling like a maniac. I was going to be such a great villain.


	15. Chapter Fifteen

"James," I said into my phone.

"Elena? Oh gosh, it's great to hear from you! What happened? Are you alright? Wait, how did you get this number?"

"Oh, I'm fine," I said, twirling my new knife in my hand. "Amazing, actually. Anyway, how I got this number doesn't matter. I just wanted to let you know that I'm in Colorado and embracing my calling. You'd better not try to come here, because I'll most likely kill you."

"Kill me? Elena, what are you talking about?"

"I'm talking about what I'm doing." I grinned. "If you wanna find out what it is, you'd better look up a song. I hope you like rock. It's called 'Blow Up the Outside World'. That give you any hints? Haha, anyway, see you never." I then hung up, and turned around.

In front of me was a group of people on the floor, all cowering. "Alright," I said, cracking my knuckles. "Which one of you is the Evo..."

 

I walked out of the bank, hands covered with blood, a crazy smile on my face. That felt... Amazing. Sure, I already had the power I just killed them for, but that didn't matter. I was a villain now. I killed who I wanted. And it felt great.

Thanks to a girl I met a few months back named Molly Walker, I could locate anyone on Earth just by thinking about them. Came in handy for hunting down Evos.

You know, all this time I'd been trying to resist the urge to kill I'd inherited from Sylar. But it was a part of me I couldn't escape, so why not just embrace it? It felt right to me, no matter how demented it may sound.

I looked down at my blood covered hands as police sirens grew ever closer, and smiled. This was the real me.

The police cars pulling up around the bank, blocking my path. Their headlights shone on me, shining in the blood that covered my hands and my white t-shirt. Doors began to open and guns were pointed at me. "Freeze!" Someone yelled.

I tilted my head and gave them a big toothy smile. "I don't take orders from the likes of you clowns." Then I took a step forward.

A bullet hit me in the shoulder and I staggered back a step, but recovered a second later and took another step forward. More bullets hit me, tearing apart my clothes, but not knocking me down.

"That's enough now," I said, then raised my hand. The bullets that had been flying towards me stopped mid-air and fell to the ground. The cops looked at each other, confused and scared. "Serves you right for shooting at a little girl," I laughed at them, then started walking again.

A taser hit me in the back and I gasped out as the electricity shot up through me. Still shaking from it, I yanked the barbs out of my back and yanked, pulling the cop who'd shot it towards me.

I grabbed the man by the collar of his uniform and forced him into a kneeling position, then took the taser from him with my other hand. I stared him in the eyes as I crushed it with my one hand, and saw panic flash across them.

 _He's not worth it,_ I thought. I lifted him into the air then threw the man back to his buddies, hearing him land on a car. I only killed the special ones.

As I walked away this time, no bullets hit me, though the ones previously shot fell out. I spit two out into the palm of my hand and dropped them onto the pavement. Then in the light of the setting sun, I put my hands in my coat pockets and walked down the sidewalk as the police rushed into the bank, where'd they'd find a woman missing the top of her head.


	16. Chapter Sixteen

I walked past the window of a small shop decorated with plastic palm trees. Inside was a wall of TVs all playing the news, and I stopped to watch.

It was a video of my recent trip to the bank in Colorado. Apparently, the reporters recognized me from the shooting at the president's speech, and were discussing what might have happened to me. They thought that the FBI had gotten hold of me and turned me into a type of 'Captain America', but I had gotten loose and went on a 'Hulk rampage'. The guys seemed a little obsessed with Marvel superheroes.

I shrugged off the video and continued down the sidewalk. Who cares if people knew my face? It's not like the people of California memorized the faces of every wanted criminal on TV.

After escaping the cops, I'd rounded a corner and flew off to my next destination: California. It was sunny and hot and in my black trench coat I was burning up, but I kept it on. It was the only part of my original life I had left.

Glancing down at my watch, I saw that it was just past noon. The girl I was looking for would be in school at this time, so I'd have to wait before I got her. The girl's power was one that I didn't have yet, the power to grant life and take it away. She could heal any person's wound and cause ones that could never heal. Downside was, she couldn't heal herself. Pity.

I stopped at the fence that surrounded the high school and leaned up against it. I had all day; I could wait.

Realizing that I looked suspicious, I buttoned up my coat to cover the blood on my white-t, as well as the bullet holes. My hands were still covered with blood though, so I just shoved them in my pockets. Nothing I could do about that right now.

I stood there, leaning up against the chain link fence in the blistering heat for an hour going unnoticed. But then I heard the click of a gun and the tip of one pressed up against the side of my head.

"Hands in the air," said a woman.

I slowly raised my blood covered hands and felt the woman stiffen. She recovered a second later though and put a pair of cuffs on me, then shoved me down the sidewalk. We went around a corner where there was a black car parked, and she shoved me in the backseat of it. There were bars separating me from the front, just like a police cruiser.

The woman then got into the driver's seat and locked the doors. She had short blond hair and wore a blue jacket. "Cop or FBI?" I asked her, trying to get comfortable.

"FBI," she replied.

I grinned. "Audrey Hanson?"

She stiffened, hand on the key to the car. "How do you know who I am?"

"Oh, I have my ways," I said to her. "Met your buddy Matt Parkman. He has a son now, you know. You talked to him lately?"

"How do you know Matt?" She asked, turning back to face me.

"We have a complicated history," I replied, grinning. "By the way, you forgot to check to see if I carried any weapons. I've got a hunting knife in my boot. You should probably get that when we get back to the station."

Audrey was silent a moment, then turned back to the road. She started up the engine then began driving. "No talking," she said quietly.

I grinned to myself. Successfully unnerved.

 

We arrived at the station not long later, and Audrey took my knife. I was then led into a white interrogation room where I sat by myself, handcuffed to the table in front of me. After being alone for thirty minutes, Audrey came in. I was surprised to see Matt was with her.

"Hey Matt," I said, laughing. "I didn't know you still worked for the FBI."

"I don't," he replied, pulling up a chair in front of the table. He seemed unnerved by the blood on my hands. "That your blood?"

I giggled. "Nope."

Audrey sat down in a chair besides Matt and looked at each of us. "How do you two know each other, Parkman?" She asked.

"She's the daughter of one of my co-workers," he muttered. "Her name is Elena Gray."

"Well, Elena was recently shot on national TV, disappeared for a week, then reappeared in Colorado where she was shot at least fifty more times. She doesn't have a scratch on her." She looked at me. "Care to explain?"

"Sure," I said, smiling. "Though before I start off, you should probably know that Matt can't read my mind."

"How's that?" Audrey asked. 

"Because I won't let him." I put on a smug face, then I looked over at Matt. "But I can read _your mind,_ Matt. And I can do so much more, too. I can... Hear it." I wagged a finger in the air. "Tick, tock, tick, tock. Your brain is like a broken clock."

Matt pinched the bridge of his nose. "You can read minds as well?" Audrey asked.

"Yup," I said, grinning. "And so much more. Remember that supposed terrorist? Ted... Sprague, I believe?" Audrey looked shocked, but nodded. "Well, prepare to have your mind blown." I raised my hands as best as I could and focused. A small ball of yellow energy formed, and Audrey stood up from shock. "Boom..." I muttered.

"What the hell is going on, Parkman?" Audrey demanded. "How is she able to do that?"

"It's complicated," Matt replied, then muttered. "Could you give us a second?" Audrey stood there for a moment, then gave a stiff nod and left the room. Matt put his arms on the table and looked at me. "What the hell is wrong with you, kid?"

"Wrong?" I asked, tilting my head. "Why, there's nothing _wrong_ with me, Matt. I've simply embraced the inner me."

"Did James cause you to do this?" Matt asked warily.

"Him? Oh, no. I don't even know where that guy is. I guess it's kinda Renautes' fault. You know how we thought they'd been shut down? They weren't. They were the ones who shot me. Hauled me back to their headquarters, tortured me, tried to drown me..." I shuddered.

"How'd you get out?"

"I let it out," I said simply. "Now I know why dad was like this for so long... It makes me feel so alive."

"Well, you're going to have to be... Normal, again. I'll talk to Audrey, see if I can get you out of here. Then you're going to come back to the Company and tell your dad you're sorry for causing him so much worry."

I shook my head. "Too late for that, Matt. I have blood on me that isn't mine and I'm a wanted suspect for murder and possible terrorist. You can't do anything to get me out of here.

"Now," I said, then looked past him at the mirror on the wall. "Get back in here, Audrey."

A second later, Audrey came back in through the door. She ignored Matt and slammed her hands on the table, looking directly at me. "Tell me what's going on," she demanded.

"Fine," I said, grinning. "Ever heard the name Sylar?"

She stiffened. Matt gave me a warning look as Audrey leaned closer to my face. "How do you know that name?" She asked.

I leaned up next to her ear and whispered. "Because he's my dad." I pulled away and looked at her shocked face before looking down at my cuffs. I yanked up and they broke off the table, then I snapped the chain connecting them.

"What the hell..!" Audrey said, pulling out her gun.

"See ya later, Matt." I shot him a wink, then waved at Audrey and teleported out of the room.


	17. Chapter Seventeen

I appeared outside the building just long enough to break the rest of the cuffs off of me, then teleported away again. I used Molly's power right before I jumped so that I could locate someone though.

I then appeared in Texas, right behind a guy with perfect blond hair. I tapped him on the shoulder. "Hello, James," I whispered.

The boy jumped and turned around to face me. "What the hell? Elena?" He said, surprised.

"The one and only," I replied, then looked around the room. We were standing in the kitchen of a small old fashioned house. "This your place?" James nodded, still slightly baffled. "Great. I need to use your sink."

I walked over to the sink and turned on the water, then coated my hands with soap before rinsing off the dried blood. James came up behind me and set a glass down besides the sink. He must have come in for a drink. "What are you doing here?" He asked. "Last I heard you'd turned Sylar."

"Well, I'm kinda on the run from the FBI now. Just escaped from their custody and here I am."

"But why are you here?" James pressed.

"To be honest, I'm not sure. You're just the first person I thought to go to." I shook my hands dry. "I might just kill you and be on my way. I haven't decided yet."

"What about our plan to expose the Company?" James asked in a shaky voice.

I shrugged. "I don't know if I want to do that anymore," I said, then looked around. "You home alone?"

James shook his head. "No."

"Liar," I whispered, walking past him.

I stepped into an empty hallway. There were no pictures and the floor was in need of a cleaning. Across from me was an empty room that was equally dirty. To my right was a flight of stairs, so I went up.

There were three rooms on the second floor, and all but one was empty. The third only had a bed and an end table. On the table was an old picture. As I walked over to it, I heard James come in behind me.

I gingerly picked up the picture and looked at it. It was of James, who couldn't have been any older than fourteen, and who could have only been his parents. Standing at the Evo Peace Summit in Odessa, Texas.

"They were killed that day," James said from behind me as I set down the picture.

I turned to face him. "So you remember everything, then?"

He gave a halfhearted laugh. "Of course I do. You can't make me forget, remember?"

I tilted my head at him as he walked over to his bed and sat down. "Then why did you act as if you knew nothing about any of this?"

"Why do you think?" He asked, shooting me a sarcastic look. "Ordinary people thought I was nuts and people like you wanted me to forget. Blending in and playing the dumb Brit was the best option for me."

"So what the hell were you doing this whole time?" I asked him angrily.

"Doing?" He said, faking a shocked tone. "Why, I was trying to get some revenge.

"My life blew up on June 13th, along with my parents. They were good people, my mother a doctor and my father a teacher. I was just their messed up son who could throw rocks around, but for some reason I lived and they didn't.

"We'd just moved here to the U.S. that week, and we had been staying at a hotel. That morning we'd actually bought this house. So after I discovered my parents were dead, I came here. Tried to continue my life without them.

"But then people started coming after me. They knew I was an Evo, so they wanted me dead. For two years, I ran for my life." He looked at me, eyes filled with anger. "Then you show up on TV and tell us all to forget everything had ever happened.

"Next thing I know, I'm free. I come home and try to make a life for myself, but I couldn't sleep. It just kept nagging me that the explosion that killed my parents was forgotten. No one, not even their family, knew what had happened to them. I felt like I had to avenge their deaths after that, punish the world for listening to you.

"I then started going to the meetings. I met people like me who remembered what had happened, more or less, and figured they could help me. But each week, more and more people forgot. I'd been about to give up and accept that I couldn't avenge my parents when you showed up on a silver platter.

"I had a simple plan. Get on TV and remind the world what happened so that my family could be properly mourned. So I continued to play dumb, let it slip to that Indian scientist that I had powers, and bam, I was offered a job at the Company that caused this all in the first place.

"Things were going smoothly until you forgot everything," he muttered. "Then you went on a revenge rampage and got caught at the white house. After that, I grabbed our stuff and came back here."

"So all this was just an attempt to get revenge for your parents?" I clarified. James nodded.

I plopped down on the bed besides him and put my head in my hands, thinking. "You deciding whether to kill me or not?" James asked warily.

"Naw. I've decided to keep you alive for now," I muttered. "Can't make any promises for later though. Sometimes you just can't control the hunger."

"So what are you doing?"

"Thinking 'bout revenge."

"About exposing the Company?" He asked. I nodded. "Well, I have some suggestions, since getting on TV was a bust..."

"Let's hear them," I said, looking up at James.

"Blowing something up would get people's attention," he said. "As well as knocking things over and-or creating things."

"Creating things?" I asked.

"I can move tons of stone with a wave of my wrist. We could create a new Stone Hinge on top of the old one if we wanted to," he said, looking at me. "Plus you have my power too, right? That means we have double the power." 

"Double the power means double the destruction," I muttered.

James grinned and nodded at me. "We have to do something noticeable. Knock some things over and build new things up where people will notice it."

"We could go to a city," I offered. "Lots of people around, and there will be plenty of concrete to move."

"We'll need a big city..." James muttered, standing up and beginning to pace. "If a few buildings collapse in a place like Dallas, no one will care. We need to go big... Like New York City."

"New York could work," I said, standing up too.

"Great," James said with a laugh. "Lets go now and get started."

"Wait," I said, putting my hand on his shoulder. He looked at me questioningly. "I may have embraced being a psycho killer, but I don't want to hurt the normal people. If we're going to trash New York, then we leave the non-Evo citizens alone, okay?"

James shrugged. "Sure, doesn't matter to me. We'll evacuate a couple skyscrapers, knock them over, maybe toss in a few explosions. It'll be enough. No one has to die."

"Good," I said, and gave a genuine smile. "Then lets go."


	18. Chapter Eighteen

James and I walked along a street in New York. It was hot and stunk of exhaust, there were puddles of disgusting water everywhere. The city was absolutely repulsive. Perhaps James and I were doing everyone a favor by targeting it.

After hearing James' story, I had agreed to help him out. Mainly out of pity, but also because I had nothing better to do. Plus I still needed that little bit of revenge on my dad and the Company. And we weren't really doing much harm, it wasn't like anyone would get hurt.

Except for the Evos. I couldn't make any promises for them.

The two of us slowed to a stop in front of a skyscraper and looked up at it. The height made me feel a bit nauseous. "So what's the plan?" I asked James, looking away from the building.

"We need to pick out some buildings on a busy street, perhaps Broadway," he said without looking at me. "If we can reduce the concrete supports on lower floors, the buildings should tip or crumple in on themselves. Then you can blow up a few cars and we can get out of there."

"Remember, we also need to evacuate the bystanders," I said.

"People will get suspicious if buildings get evacuated..." James muttered. "We'll have to split up. Cover as much ground as possible before we get caught."

"Then we'll need a place to meet up," I replied. "How about Wall Street? We could each take one side of Broadway and meet up there in the middle."

"Sounds good," James said, then looked at me. "Meet at Wall Street in two hours. Now let's go."

I teleported the two of us straight to the corner of Wall Street and Broadway, where we then broke up, James going left and me right.

As I walked down the street, I had a psycho grin on my face. This was going to be so much fun.

I quickly chose a building and went inside. There was a woman at a counter just inside the door, so I walked up to her. I took a moment to be glad that my torn up, bloody shirt was covered up by my coat. "Can I help you?" The woman asked.

"Yes," I replied. "Does this building have a speaker system set up for announcements and such?"

"It does," she said, head tilted slightly. "Why do you ask?"

"Doesn't matter." I shrugged. "But show me where it is."

"Right this way," the woman said, smiling as she led me down a hallway and into an office.

There wasn't anyone in the room, so I plopped down at the chair behind the desk. "You can go now," I told the woman. "Leave the building. Go home. If you live on Broadway, then go somewhere else." She opened her mouth to reply, but I held up my hand to stop her. "Go anywhere that isn't Broadway. It doesn't matter where."

The woman nodded and left the room, so I turned to the microphone on the desk and pressed the button on the stand. "Attention everyone," I said. "The building needs to be evacuated. Please drop what you are doing and leave the building in an orderly manner as quick as possible. Once you exit the building, leave Broadway and return to your homes. That will be all."

I then left the office and stood in the hall as people filed past me, heading out the front door. I grinned as I watched them. They were like mindless drones obeying the queen.

Once everyone was out, I stepped out of the building as well and looked at it. "Let's do this..." I muttered, then raised my hands.

Immediately, the building began to shake. My arms shook as well from the strain. I had my hands balled up into fists, but then I opened them. The concrete supports snapped inside of the building and it began to crumple.

People in the streets noticed the falling building and began to scatter, screaming. As the dust from the first building was still rising into the air, I walked across the street and into the next building.

 

I did the same thing to five more buildings and flipped a few cars, but then I noticed that the two hours were up. I was a little upset to stop, but cops were showing up as well as helicopters, and unlike me, James wasn't bulletproof. So I decided to go ahead back.

I ran down the street towards Wall Street, jumping over cracks in the pavement and vaulting over a flaming car. I'd had a little bit of fun with using my induced radioactivity power on the cars, and most of the ones that were flipped were on fire.

I slowed to a stop at Wall Street and looked around the corner. There were a few people running away from the chaos that way, but James was no where to be seen.

Confused, I looked down the street at the way he'd gone. There was a wreck blocking my view, two people probably crashed while driving away from his share of the mayhem, so I couldn't see too much.

 _He's probably on his way back,_ I thought to myself. It was too dangerous to hang around over here though with cops crawling all over the place. I hesitantly took a step forward, unsure if I should go get him or not. _You know what, he's late, I'm going to get him,_ I thought, then flew over the barrier of cars.

I nearly screamed at what I saw on the other side.

Buildings were toppled and crumbling as I expected, but that wasn't all. Cracks ran through the pavement, at least twenty feet deep. Cars burned, people screamed.

And the bodies.

The ground was covered with bodies. Burned, crushed, and all covered with blood. There were pools of blood and gore everywhere and little rivers of it ran from the corpses into the cracks.

I doubled over and began dry heaving. I'd actually throw up if I had eaten in the past few days. _What the hell happened?_ I thought after I'd recovered. I had to find James. Something must have gone wrong. Maybe he found another Evo, who used their powers and killed everyone? It didn't matter. I just had to find him.

I ran through the massacre, slipping in blood and on body parts every so often. At one point I fell down and landed right next to the body of a woman who died mid-scream. But I just covered my mouth, got up, and continued on.

I had just jumped over a car in my path when I saw James. He was standing in the middle of the road looking up at a helicopter above him. Buildings were crumbling on both sides of the street, and I assumed he was causing them to in effort to drive the plane away.

Knowing my friend was in danger of dying, I rushed out into the street behind him. It was starting to get dark so the helicopter turned on a searchlight, shining it directly on James. I put on a burst of speed and tackled James out of the way just as the men in the copter began shooting. Then I closed my eyes and teleported us back to Wall Street.

We appeared a few inches off the ground and landed with a thud on the concrete. James jumped to his feet and I stood up more slowly, straightening my baseball cap.

"Why the bloody hell did you teleport me? I was fine!" James said, outraged.

"I just saved your life! Those men in the helicopter were about to blow you apart!"

"I could've taken care of them," he growled. "If you had been paying any attention, you'd have noticed that I was about to hit it out of the air with a rock."

"I don't know why you're so upset, by teleporting you and me away no one had to die!"

"You can't have a war without death," James growled.

"A war? James, what are you talking about?" I asked, baffled.

"I'm talking about all of this!" James said, waving his arm around. "What we just did is a declaration of war, and people will know it! Their side already suffered casualties, where as we are as strong as before. We need to take out as many as possible before they come to grips with what is happening and fight with all they've got!"

"You killed all those people, didn't you?" I murmured, taking a step away from James. "You killed all those civilians."

"They were on the enemy side. They needed to be killed," James said gruffly.

"Really, James? War? This isn't what I wanted and you know it!" I yelled at him.

"But you agreed to help me, and help me you have," James shot back, a sly grin on his face. "Now come, we must finish our plans."

"There is no freaking way I'm helping you after what you just did!" I yelled, stomping my foot. "I should kill you now for everything you've done!"

"Oh, but we can't have that, now can we?" The James said, pulling a gun out of his jacket.

As he raised the gun up and pointed it at my face, my life actually flashed before my eyes. I was reminded of what I had become... I'd become who my father was trying to escape. A serial killer. A murderer. A monster.

A tear managed to squeeze itself out of my eye just before the bullet pierced my forehead and everything went black.


	19. Chapter Nineteen

Being actually, permanently dead was a strange feeling. It was as if I were floating in a never ending darkness, all alone but... Not. I could feel the presents of others around me, but I couldn't see anyone. Not to mention it was like the black was a soft fabric, like I wasn't floating in a void or in air, rather than lying on a bed of wool.

It was peaceful in the void. I didn't feel the weight of any of my wrongdoings on my shoulders anymore. But I was overjoyed to notice that _it_ was gone. The hunger. I was just a... Normal person again. Realizing that, I felt utterly blissful.

I could get used to being dead.

 

Then the light was back.

It started off as a small dot, like the light at the end of a tunnel, but gradually grew bigger. Seconds, maybe hours later, I couldn't really tell, I was engulfed with light. I screamed as I shielded my eyes, feeling everything come back. I could feel, I could hear... I was alive.

 

I opened my eyes with a gasp, sitting up. "Whoa, whoa!" Peter said, laying a hand on my chest and forcing me back into a laying position.

"What happened?" I said, looking around wildly. "Where am I?"

"You were shot," Peter said quietly in an attempt at a soothing tone. "But you're alright now. Safe."

"Shot?" I asked, then my hand darted up to my forehead. My hat was gone, so I easily ran my hand over the spot where James' bullet had hit me. But I was fine. "How is this possible? I can't heal from a bullet through the head."

"I healed you," Peter replied. "Injected you with my blood and you healed right up."

"But how are you here? How did you know where to find me?"

"The dream, Elena." Peter sighed. "We knew you and that boy would come here, so Sylar and I got here yesterday to wait for you guys. But we were a little late to react... Sylar left me to take care of you and went after James."

"We need to go help him!" I said, sitting up again. I noticed that I was sitting on a table in what appeared to be an 80's themed cafe. "James has gone nuts, he'll kill him!"

"Your dad will be fine," Peter said, taking my hand and helping me off the table. "He's like a cockroach. Cut off his head and he still won't die. Quite literally, actually." 

I was a little shaky on my feet at first as I walked over to the window to look out on the street. Peter put his hand on my shoulder to try to stop me, but I ignored him and looked anyway.

Some of the buildings were still crumbling in on themselves as fires burned in the streets. I heard the cries of pain and screams of fear. As I watched, a burning car, luckily empty, tipped and fell into one of the crevices in the road.

In my reflection on the glass, I saw that I had a look of disbelief and disgust. I clutched my stomach, suddenly feeling sick. "I did this," I muttered, trying to keep from having another round of dry heaves.

"You didn't do this," Peter said, stepping up besides me. "This was James' doing. He knocked over buildings that hadn't been evacuated and then opened cracks in the road to make those fleeing fall to their deaths... Even with the hunger in control of you, the section you destroyed is free of dead bodies." Peter glanced over at me. "Though there are a lot of burning cars. Taking it you had some target practice?"

It was a relief to know that I hadn't killed anyone, but I still felt awful. "Can we do anything to help?"

"Not without exposing the Company," Peter murmured. "It's hard to keep from using your powers to help people who need them. We could slip, lift one person too many and seem suspicious, and the Company's cover-up would go down the drain. Besides, the local authorities are taking care of things fairly well."

"Cover-up?" I asked, looking at Peter. 

"It wasn't like we could say two confused teenagers stood in the streets and knocked over multiple buildings with a wave of their hands," Peter said with a small shrug. "Matt Parkman should have convinced everyone that it was a major earthquake by now.

"By the way," Peter continued, turning to me and crossing his arms. "What's this I hear about you being in custody of the FBI?"

"It's a bit complicated," I muttered. "Matt gonna tell that Audrey chick where to find me, lock me up for goodsies?"

"Matt wouldn't do that, Elena," Peter said, letting his arms drop to his sides. "We're just all a bit disappointed. We'd hoped you'd be able to control this a little better." 

"How would you expect me to control the hunger when I had no idea what was going on? You know it intensifies when I'm nervous," I said, almost screamed. "You guys wiped my memory! All I knew was that James remembered what had happened and was willing to be my friend and work with me to get some revenge for us both."

"It was wrong to make you forget, Elena. We know that now." Peter sighed. "Sylar was just so scared... We had dreams of James shooting you every night, and each time it seemed to get worse somehow. More blood, more screaming... I doubt you could've noticed, but it was driving him crazy. We agreed that removing your memories of James and the dream was the best we could do in effort to keep it from happening, without going to the extent of locking you up.

"We'd thought we had made the right move, too," Peter said with a sarcastic smile. "When we called James in to have his memory wiped, he sweared that he'd remember everything, that he'd hunt you down and make you turn on us..." Peter hung his head, sighing again. "Hearing that was enough to turn everyone else on our page. Then we just knocked him out, tried to erase his memory and dropped him off at home, hoping it would be enough."

"It's fine, Pete..." I muttered. "I know you guys were just trying to protect me... I forgive you."

Peter was about to speak again but the door to the cafe suddenly slammed open. Peter raised his hand up as he pushed me behind him with the other. It was a sweet effort to shield me, but it didn't do much since we were the same size.

"Oh God, Elena!" Sylar exclaimed, running over to me. His cheeks were wet from tears as he embraced me. "Thank God you're alright..." He said quietly, hugging me as if he'd never let go.

Peter lowered his hand and stepped aside, a small grin on his face. Then something dawned on him. "Where's the kid?"

Sylar tried to step away from me to address Peter, but I was holding onto him too tightly, openly sobbing now. Sylar looked down at me with a sad smile and rustled my hair before looking at Peter. "He got away. No idea how... I followed him out onto a backstreet, but the second I turned the corner he was gone. I checked everywhere, it was like he'd vanished."

"So James is still on the loose?" I asked quietly after a tense bout of silence.

"He is," Sylar confirmed sadly. "But we'll catch him. We always do.

"But now," Sylar continued. "We need to get you back home. You've got some explaining to do to your grandpas."

"Can't we stay and help these people, just for a little?" I felt awful doing this and then just leaving.

Peter shook his head. "You know we can't. Now come on."

I wiped my tears away as I let go of Sylar. Peter then stepped up to us both and teleported us away from the massacre, back to quiet little Odessa, Texas.


	20. Chapter Twenty - Epilogue

_Just keep running, just keep running..._ James thought to himself frantically as he pounded down an alley.

He hadn't expected for Elena's dad to come after him after he'd shot her. He'd figured, if the guy could still stand to look at her, he'd stay behind with her body and mourn. Apparently, the guy was still in touch with his serial killer side.

And he was next on the list.

"Get back here you little..!" James heard him yell from further down the alley, though he was growing steadily closer. 

James rounded a bend and came out onto a street just as a car was driving towards him. He jumped out of the way, heart pumping loudly from shock and fear, as it slowed to a stop. The passenger side window rolled down as the door to the backseat popped open. "Wanna live? Get in," a woman said.

Knowing it was his only chance, James hopped into the car besides a stern looking African-American man. The car then drove down the alley, rounding another corner and hitting the main street just as Sylar emerged into the backstreet.

"Who are you people?" James asked, scooting further away from the man besides him. Something was a little... Off, about him.

"My name is Erica Kravid," the woman in the passenger seat said. "These men are Mr. Harris."

James looked from the man besides him to the driver, his mouth open. They were the same dude. "What the bloody hell is going on?"

"We'd like to offer you a job, James," Erica said without turning to face him. "Just sit tight and all your questions will be answered once we get back to Renautas."

"What happens if I don't want a job?"

"Then we turn you over to the angry father of the girl you just murdered," Erica replied. "But I doubt you'll refuse our offer. It involves something you want very, very badly James."

"And what exactly is that?" James asked, not bothering to ask how she knew his name.

"Revenge," Erica said. Even without her turning around, James could tell she was smiling.

A sly grin appeared on James' face. "I'm listening."


End file.
